The Road Less Traveled

My mom always used to take the back roads, and as a kid I never understood it... why not just take the direct route? I called her Mrs. Todd... as in Stephen King's short story, Mrs. Todd's Shortcut, where this crazy back-road-obsessed-old-bat (*) kept finding strange and menacing creatures in her increasingly obscure backroad adventures. And I don't know for sure, but I'm pretty sure it led to her demise.

(* Not that the Queen's mother is a crazy old bat... just back road obsessed.)

Now, of course, I am doing the same thing. Exploring. Taking the road less traveled. I like to see what's out there, and even though there isn't much traffic to avoid, I still avoid the main roads if the back roads aren't too far out of the way.

Today this was one of my high traffic areas.

He kindly moved to the side to let me pass, but really, I was happy taking in the scenery so I wasn't going much faster than he was.

Wet creek.

I took some really interesting roads. And turned around a couple of times because I swore I heard banjos.

Dry creek.

Like the road after this pic, which went from pavement to gravel to rutted gravel to dirt and up a steep incline. No thank you. I have four wheel drive, but I still drive a Mini.

I'm fascinated by barns, and I saw some real stunners today. Like this one that has been right before my eyes many, many times, had I bothered to turn my head and look.

From the front it has sort of an Amityville vibe going on. The side is architecturally interesting with all the zigging and zagging.

Crazy twisted tree trunk - happy Halloween y'all! Too bad there isn't a vulture perching on the tippy top.

Pretty haunted horses.

Don't look at the ghost George... don't look at the ghost.

Or maybe 'look at the flowers Lizzy.' hahaha, that's for The Walking Dead fans. Like moi.

A cool natural arch.

This area was gorgeous.

And very quiet.

Because this is THE road less traveled. It started out paved and then it was gravel... and I just kept hoping it stayed gravel and it too didn't turn into dirt. But my trusty GPS (stop laughing) showed me that it met up with the main road eventually.

This guy wasn't worried about it.

This church was pretty picturesque. For a second there I thought I'd found a wormhole and I was in New England.

I could cry... this was an awesome barn, but I got a blurry pic.

But in a way it looks like I did it on purpose, like I had some fancy camera filter to make it look like an oil painting - and that makes it artsy fartsy. 

Ha!

Another full tobacco barn. We are apparently the tobacco capital of the United States... that's not anecdotal - we really are.

Another pretty road. I'm going to miss fall when it's gone.

Lots of hay for the moo cows.

I don't know why this barn fascinates me so, but it's one of my favorites. I think it's partly because the green has faded and worn away and it looks turqouise. I think it's beautiful.

And here's our lovely barn. This is one of the few times that you can see it from this angle because the trees are naked. Yes, that's right. You are looking at a whole bunch of trees in their birthday suits. Perv.

As much as I like the "blue" barn, I think this may be my favorite photo of the day. It's postcard worthy.

If I was a moo cow, this is where I'd want to be.

But as a driver, I appreciated being here. On a road all to myself. One where, in spots, the leaves covered the road... which is an odd experience because you know where the road is, but you doubt it's there. Minds like to play tricks. Or at least mine does.

And so ended another spontaneous adventure. Are you relaxed? I'm relaxed.

A Little Bit of Everything

A random smattering of photos, starting with The Queen selling her wares at the farmer's market.

The only comment this photo received on the market's page was that Guinness is no longer good for you, that they use crappy ingredients. I paraphrase... but yeah. Missing the point. Not selling Guinness. Move along.

Another neighbor dog. Looks a little cross-eyed but he's a sweet kid.

The Queen has begun to emulate her great-great grandmother in joining community groups. So far I am part of only two. I have a long way to go.

The point of that is to say that I attended a meeting where someone wanted a picture of our town sign with the trees behind it. So, being the shutterbug that I am, I snapped this photo today.

My only regret is that the power line could not be omitted without cutting off the top of the trees.

Here's another version. Not as pretty, but more focus on the sign.

While I was snapping photos, I thought this was a nice barn pic. All that's missing is one piece of equipment in the last bay to make it perfect silhouette.

And these trees that are just beautiful.

In the Queen's imaginary world those trees are moving toward the house and are ready to devour it. Just me?

And the cows that were also posing in a nice little vignette.

We had another little visitor today. A bird I have not seen before, the coloring reminds me of one of the chickens I want to own eventually. The King says it is a starling.

I think it's darling. 

The Queen just flexed her poetry muscle.

It's a nice Halloweenie photo.

The bluejays are hard to capture because they like the perimeter of the yard. That makes most pics fuzzy. But they're too pretty not to try.

I love fall for all the colors... the yellow, orange and red of the trees. The reds and blues of the birds. Such a beautiful time of year.

Just so pretty.

  
You can't be unhappy with that in your face all day.

Color Me Happy

This is the most beautiful fall we've had since we moved here.

So much color that it's overwhelming. But in a good way.

The cows seem to enjoy the weather. It's grey and a little drizzly, but I love it.

The sky makes the colors pop.

The creek is amazing!

Even the monochromatics are pretty.

Wish it could stay like this forever.