The Glories Of Summer In Farm Country, Part 2

Yesterday I presented Part 1 of a summer afternoon drive along rural roads where I marveled at the pastoral beauty all around me. I'll begin Part 2 with a neighbor's geese who honked loudly and waddled quickly away when I aimed a camera at them:

Daphne seemed fascinated by the corn fields passing by her window:

And this is the scene which originally inspired me to drive home and get my camera: A hillside, covered with Black-Eyed Susans and Wild Thyme, with a red barn in the background:

A barn surrounded by clucking hens, with a statue of a cow out front and an enormous Great Pyrenees inside:

I passed by woodlands, both hardwood and conifer:

And several women sat and chatted on the porch near anAmerican flag. The rose bush was in full bloom and the trees provided lots of afternoon shade:

And old home with what appeared to be a modern barn:

A field of soggy ground with fences running through it. I don't know how or why they erected those fences, but they did make an attractive scene:

Wildflowers, barbed wire fence and forest:

A brick home, shaded by giant trees with roses in bloom:

And an unexplained farm lane leading into the woods which caused my mind to imagine all kinds of possible destinations:

And the last photo of my journey was of my neighbors' cows. They were very interested to see what I was doing. I don't know if that's because they know me (they do) or because they're interested in all human activity:

Arriving At The Farm On A November Day

It was a very long trip, a good six hours, driving from Albany up to the farm. In theory it's only a four hour trip, but of course I make lots of doggy rest stops and tourist stops. But we did arrive on a sunny November Sunday afternoon. Everything at the farm looked good and I got busy turning up the heat, putting food into the refrigerator, turning on the water supply and making the bed (I'd washed the sheets). Fergus and Daphne immediately made good use of my clean bed clothes while Winky lounged on the carpet:

Clover rested on a dog bed/pillow while Winky rolled for joy:

As for Fergus, he just wanted to stay on the bed:

Seamus and Wally were resting near the table and Daphne went over to join them:

Life is good:

I was worried about leaving all six dogs in that tiny apartment when I left without them the following day. The tenant showed me what he'd done with his dog and a dog for which he was babysitting. He'd cleaned out an enclosed stall in the barn, carried in some armloads of hay and kept the dogs in there. I took my dogs out there to test it out. They found it fascinating, filled with all sorts of amazing, interesting smells:

Yes, Fergus is peeing. All the dogs seemed to find it necessary to mark this room as theirs. I let them do it as I knew I'd be fighting a losing battle if I tried to stop them. But the good news was that they seemed to like the place:

The dogs and I went back into the apartment to prepare for the evening. But I heard quite a ruckus outside so grabbed my camera and went out to investigate. Thousands of geese were flying overhead on their way south.  I was too late to catch most of them, but I did manage to get a brief video: