IT WAS A BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY MORNING FOR REFLECTIVE THOUGHT AND CONTEMPLATION

Gentle late evening rains Monday night left a refreshing smell first thing this morning.  Not the same smell as a desert rain but pleasing just the same.  Lots of happy giggles in the garden with all plant life pleasantly refreshed.  We started our day under a changing moody cloud cover and slightly diminished humidity.

THIS WHOLE CORNFIELD WAS GIGGLING AND I HEARD A LOT OF WHISPERED CHUCKLES COMING FROM THE BEAN FIELD BELOW AS WELL

Pheebs and I swung through Bayfield picking up a coffee to go and a few photos along the way.  With not as many week-end Latte tourists in town I was in and out of the shopbike coffee roasters in one quick flip.  Nice.

FIRST TIME I HAVE SEEN THIS GODERICH TUGBOAT TIED UP IN BAYFIELD

THE BAYFIELD POLE WALKERS WERE OUT AND ABOUT THIS MORNING IN BAYFIELD AGAIN

HEADING OUT OF BAYFIELD I WAS GRIPPED BY THE MORNING SKY

Slipping out the south end of Bayfield I noticed right away what a beautiful morning we actually had going for us.  It was a moody sky overhead textured with billowing puffy gray and white clouds with an occasional smattering of sunshine making it's way through to pop out the summer colors.  These types of skies are always my favorite.

A WELL MANICURED FARM LANE

Matching my Satellite radio music to the relaxed feeling of the morning we made our way along the back country roads plodding along at an even slower pace than the slow pace we usually go.  I marveled at all the colors and hues as Sun splashes touched down traveling across acres of green and gold farm lands.  I could feel something special in the morning air so we kept going and going taking in all the fine scenery we could. Nary another soul did we see which for me added to the serenity that enveloped us for the whole time Pheebs and I were out and about.  Some mornings are just like that for us.  Diamonds in the rough.

‘ARE YOU TAKING MORE PICTURES OF ME DAD’

YES, WE SURE LOVE OUR QUIET COUNTRY MORNINGS:))

In a reflective mood earlier today I spent a lot of time thinking and remembering many old pleasant happenings over the years thinking how fortunate I am being able to spend these precious morning hours with my best Pal out doing what I absolutely love doing.  I am never more at peace than when I am out for our daily morning Jeep rides through this rurally beautiful countryside.  I never feel more at ease with myself than I do the hours I spend by myself.  Once a rather social fellow almost always being involved with people everywhere I went I can't believe how I did all that years ago.  Always running around here and there people pleasing.  Always trying to be what other people thought I should be and always feeling bad when I would inevitably fall short of either their or my own expectations.  How much better life is now at this latter stage of life since I finally turned my back years ago on that lifestyle and walked away.  It hasn't come easy and self doubt still on occasion shadows me but with morning's like this morning becoming even more assuring for me I know I am right and have chosen the path I am destined to walk.  And I'm learning too I don't have to feel guilty about that.  Maybe some of this aging stuff isn't so bad after all if one is open minded and patient enough to embrace, understand, and accept it.  And some mornings that is exactly where I am and what I do.

A CATTLE PEN

LOOKS LIKE A HERD OF COWS AHEAD

YEP, COW’S ALRIGHT

NOW IF I WAS A COW THAT WOULD BE ME WAY OVER THERE BY MYSELF ON THE RIGHT AWAY FROM HERD DOING MY OWN THING

AND JUST DOWN THE ROAD WE WERE ABOUT TO SEE ANOTHER HERD OF COWS

YEP THERE THEY ARE AND THAT BIG WHITE FELLER IS A BULL AND I KNEW THAT BECAUSE HE WAS WEARING A NAME TAG THAT SAID, ‘I’M DA BULL’

NICE LAZY MORNING UNDER A BIG SHADE TREE

I THINK THESE FOUR ARE AT ODD ENDS WITH EACH OTHER

JUST CALL ME SNOOZY

Pheebs and I finally made it home around 11 and with clearing skies allowing more Sunshine through the big clouds the day quickly turned a bit too hot and sticky for my liking.  But no matter, it was into the cool confines of our house we went and there we stayed. until it cooled off enough after supper to get out a do a wee bit of yard work.

LOVE THESE BIG SKY DAYS

AS PRETTY AS THE MORNING WAS THIS FELLA SURE WAS SMELLING IT UP

CORN AGAINST THE SKY

One of my favorite guitar players is the late Michael Hedges and it was his 'Aerial Boundaries' this morning that added to my wandering thoughts.  Oh how I wished I would have learned years ago to play a musical instrument well.  Piano, guitar, violin, anything.  It's not that I didn't once try but I didn't try hard enough and it's a regret I will always carry with me.  I am always absolutely in awe when I see or hear musicians who play instruments so well.  My Grandfather made violins, my Mother played piano by ear, and my talented Son is a singer, songwriter, keyboardist, music producer and technician all wrapped up in one.  And he wears all those hats well.  Somehow that music talent from my Mother leap-frogged over me to my Son.  Well not exactly, I do have the music in me but never learned well enough how to get it out.

GROANER'S CORNER:(( A young ventriloquist is touring Norway and puts on a show in a small fishing town. With his dummy on his knee, he starts going through his usual dumb blonde jokes.  Suddenly, a blonde woman in the fourth row stands on her chair and starts shouting, 'I've heard enough of your stupid blonde jokes. What makes you think you can stereotype Norwegian blonde women that way? What does the color of a woman's hair have to do with her worth as a human being? It's men like you who keep women like me from being respected at work and in the community, and from reaching our full potential as people. Its people like you that make others think that all blondes are dumb. You and your kind continue to perpetuate discrimination against not only blondes but women in general, pathetically all in the name of humor!'  The embarrassed ventriloquist begins to apologize, and the blonde interrupts yelling, 'You stay out of this.  I'm talking to that rude little twit on your lap.'

-----------------------------

During his physical, the doctor asked the patient about his daily activity level.  He described a typical day this way: 'Well, yesterday afternoon, I waded along the edge of a lake, drank eight beers, escaped from wild dogs in the heavy brush, jumped away from an aggressive rattlesnake, marched up and down several rocky hills, stood in a patch of poison ivy, crawled out of quicksand and took four leaks behind big trees.' Inspired by the story, the doctor said, 'You must be one hell of an outdoors man!' 'NAH,' he replied, 'I'm just a crappy golfer.'

======================================