Today Aunt Jeanette writes:

As I was walking this morning – yep, I lost my walking partner to an injury – I was writing stories in my head. There wasn’t much else I could do because the fog was so dense I could barely see where I was going. It was one of those heavy gray curtain fogs that opened just enough to let me through and then closed quickly behind me. As I walked, I made a list in my head of all the things we have seen, heard, smelled and felt on our daily walks.

Lists…I am one of those OCD people that is constantly making lists and crossing things off. If I do something that is not on my list, I add it and then cross it off. Careful – I know what you are thinking! Anyway, I hope you enjoy my list of all the reasons I love walking in the country! (This is a spin-off of one of Melissa’s “AgWalks” several weeks ago. We make a great team!) *Editor’s Note: Little does Aunt Jeanette know how many lists I make on a daily basis!

• A mother raccoon and her four babies leaving our yard after a night of exploring
• Killdeer scolding us from the roadside ditches
• Frogs serenading us from our neighbor’s pond
• A train rumbling on distant tracks
• A rooster pheasant crowing
• Planes flying overhead spraying crops before it gets too hot or windy
• The hum of tired irrigation motors
• A doe and her spotted fawn ambling across the road to seek daytime shelter in our son’s windbreak
• Wild plums – fruit replacing the fragrant blossoms from earlier this spring
• The first wild roses of summer
• Those same wild rose bushes now full of bright red rose hips
• Sweet clover in full bloom – one of my favorite scents
• The Little Sandy Creek bubbling along happily after an unexpected rain
• Numerous animal tracks – raccoon, deer, coyote, plus some we weren’t able to identify
• The tracks made by our grandchildren’s stroller as it was being pushed by our son and his wife
• The delicate white flowers of Queen Anne’s Lace
• Food and shelter for monarch butterfly larvae – aka milkweed
• Our drenched clothes and glistening skin after being caught in a sudden rain shower
• Leaves on cornstalks waving to us as we passed by
• Two squirrels playing ring-around-the-rosy on a tree trunk
• Our own shoe tracks from the previous day’s walk
• The growing and maturing corn and soybean fields
• Unidentified birds greeting us with their morning songs
• Pockets bulging with nails and other items we pick up that don’t belong on the road
• Goosebumps on our arms from an unusually cool summer morning
• The sun rising over a beautiful field of corn
• The pink, orange, yellow and blue beginning of a brand new day

Is walking in the country boring? Never!

Until we walk again …