This promising start soon deteriorated into a storm warning, although for now it only amounts to a heavy overcast.
Needing to do food shopping, we took another circuitous route noting as we crossed over the Battenkill that the water level was impressively high and fast flowing.
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Our squirrel friends are shedding their winter coats which makes them look rather a fright but does not suppress their appetites.
“Nuts all gone, missus. You got more?”
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The trees are filling out, some more rapidly than others and the ground is suddenly green again.
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Approaching the once pink, now almost entirely blue farmhouse.
There remains one small pink panel.
We rather liked its pinkness.
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Shapes and outlines.
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When out and about I quite often have to avert my eyes.
Usually it’s to avoid seeing a farm that has gone to rack and ruin or become a dumping ground.
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But what disturbs me most is the sight of farm animals living in among the mess.
Some days these sights get to me and this morning I wanted to weep for those poor creatures.
The contrast between the loveliness of the countryside and those blemishes emphasises their ugliness.
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Approaching a small lake we caught sight of something large and white. What was it?
A goose’s bottom!
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A car turned into the road behind us, so we went sailing off before I could check for other wildfowl.
We sped past two miniatures horses that I barely managed to focus my eyes on, never mind the camera.
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While the special lenses in my glasses correct for double vision, I have difficulty focussing when in motion, be it walking or riding in a car.
My view gets rather muddled.
Like a kaleidoscope.
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It is frustrating, but I must be grateful to have enjoyed brilliant eyesight for as long as I did.
One should take nothing for granted.
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Grant turned onto a side road to avoid having the car behind us and we found ourselves once more in foreign territory.
We have done a lot of exploring and the scenery changes dramatically with the seasons, so it is hard to be certain sometimes that we are travelling a road for the first time.
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This tiny building was once a school. We knew we had never seen that before.
Grant is surprised that we still find unexplored routes, but I suspect there plenty more.
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Google maps located this small farm for me and it looks to me as if we have lots more discoveries in our future!
They never disappoint.
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Apart from focussing issues, there is always the problem of window or windshield reflections.
And finding an angle that is not obscured by vegetation.
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Bumpy roads are no help, especially when trying to capture lots of small beehives and their reflections.
It didn’t work too well.
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Obviously neither did this. The goose was on Grant’s side and we moved past it quickly, but such a fine fellow deserves mention.
As we approached, the goose rose up to challenge us, presumably defending its mate.
How brave to take on a car.
We didn’t slow down so as not to further disturb the birds.
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Red maples and willows in bud.
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Small wooly creatures came into view.
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How could I not take a picture?
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Two were brand new!
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More pictures get dumped than not.
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But often the camera captures something I did not see.
Do you see the bird feeder?
Forsythia is blooming. Too bad it doesn’t last long, but there will be something else instead.
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We had definitely not seen those hills before.
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Or this posh farmhouse.
How many cats could we fit in there?!
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Then suddenly Grant knew where we were.
We always have an approximate idea.
So we carried on to Hannaford’s and reached home in time to avoid delayed cat lunches.
The posh farmhouse looks rather grand. I doubt muddy work-boots are welcome inside it.
Best wishes, Pete.
Posh farming!
Thank you, Carolyn, for your lovely musing about the roads, the green fields, and the white bottom of the fishing goose. I am very impressed with the posh farmhouse! I didn’t know that such farm’s
were anywhere!
Joanna
Looks like that mummy sheep somehow missed the shearing last year!
Sheep seem to get shorn at different times here and some once a year, others twice.
I wonder if the owner of the farmhouse decided he didn’t actually like the pink colour and repainted it with blue (it must have cost quite a lot to change it). Like Grant, I’m also surprised that you discover so many new roads near your home … but I’m not complaining, there’s so much beauty to see! Love that photo of the goose’s bottom and of course the little lambs.