Country Views: Learning To Fly

Mother Red Winged Black Bird on the wire can mean only one thing.

Wednesday was another cracker of a day. I think Summer 2020 has been one of the nicest- in terms of weather- here in the Mid-West in years. Sure, we get the occasional humid, torch of a day, but interspersed between have been some of the most pleasant days I can remember. Wednesday was about as good as it ever gets in July.

Speaking of July- It is about over. We are on the backside of Summer and Fall is not far away. In fact, you could almost feel a snap in the air Wednesday. A faint portent of things to come. Even my next door neighbor said he was seeing signs of fall coming. Leaves turning brown and falling away. The walnut trees are already dropping their fruit here. Birds are becoming scarce. The Robin's song is getting rarer in the mornings.

I noticed that the Red Winged Blackbirds are now sitting on the high lines watching their new broods learn to fly. The mothers are off their nests and sitting alongside the males. Soon, once the youngsters are strong enough, they will also start to vacate the area and head on to their Wintering areas. Attacks from those birds should fall way off now. They have no reason to be protective now that the young are getting all grown up.

I was heading South on this fine day aboard the ol' Fargo Gen I bike. Off to test some tires on Petrie Road's Level B section. I did not know if that area got little, or a lot of rain the day before, so I had no idea what I was in for. All good! I like surprises sometimes. The gravel roads on the way down were full of chunk. Apparently the county finally got around to depositing fresh gravel again. The roads had been in a state of smoothness around here for quite sometime until now.

The wind was at my back, but it wasn't a big deal, it was more about the nature of this gravel that was the tough thing. It was just really loose and was rolling around under the tires causing me to work even harder. So, despite having a tailwind, it was not an easy trip to Petrie Road.

That arrow points to a whirlybird spraying crops.

The back end of Summer is always a weird time for me. The days are getting perceptibly shorter again. Plants and flowers are matured, or close to it, and new growth is over for the year. Things are ripening, turning brown, yellow, and other earthy hues. I often ride with a strange feeling on myself this time of the year.

A field with some yellowing plant or another shows in stark contrast to the greenery surrounding it.

Time falsely seems to stand still this time of the year, I feel. Lingering twilight evenings, the sameness of the skies, the seemingly everlasting greenery, and the calmness of weather that comes about this time of year all seem to make time crawl. But we are not stalling out. It's easy to get caught up in the "endless Summer" thing. Soon, things will seem like they are falling off a cliff toward the first frost.

This corn has already silked out. It won't be long before it is ripened and drying down. 

This weird year doesn't help with the strange feelings I have now. 120+ days into it, and no end in sight, and schools and all that thinking they will be opening. Man...... With a son heading off to his senior year in high school, I just don't know..... You can say it's no big deal all you want. The thing is, nobody knows how it will go. So, I have that hanging over my head now too.

I knelt down in the middle of Petrie Road's dirt and just listened to the sounds of the wind and of Nature all around me. Many minutes passed me by........

Actually, I stopped a lot on this ride. I looked for flowers and anything to distract me. These rides are really precious. The time I get to just go away from it all is needed and rejuvenating. I am really blessed to be able to do this. I see what other people are going through now and it breaks my heart. To have these opportunities is amazing. I try not to forget that.