Sunday Morning coming up

What a magical frosty morning!

It was 23 ℉ when I went out to enjoy the morning sounds on Sunday morning.

I thought it was raining or there were droplets of water from the trees, but it wasn't. It was the most beautiful sound of leaves falling gently to the ground around me.

The sun takes a long time in the later months to come over the hilltops and trees. As it comes up slowly, it lights up the colors of the trees across the meadow. 

[This is a section that hasn't been logged yet so there are still quite a few oaks as well as other colorful trees]

15 minutes later, I could see through our trees across to the meadow floor. The deer usually come out along these woods late in the day when the sun shines directly into the area where the green leaves are. 

I found a spot to sit down in my coveralls and watch our meadow as the sun slowly came up over the trees.

The only sounds I heard were some crows calling and flying overhead, along with the whisper of locust leaves and some oak leaves drifting down.

Off to my west I could hear a deer snort and blow. Either it scented me or something else had disturbed it. I waited.

The Queen Anne's Lace was delicately decorated with frost.

The Vervain that I was sitting next to reflected the morning color hues.

Finally the sun was high enough to shine on our meadow and I waited. Most mornings, the does will come out and cross our meadow and browse quietly before jumping our fence and heading east into the neighbor's land.

They didn't this time. So I took a few more 'frosty' photos and decided to check our trail cam which I'd set out a couple of weeks ago. According to the time strip, on the trail cam, this guy was in the woods west of me.

He sure is a pretty one.

Here he is a few days earlier. 

However, I looked through about 200+ photos of deer and we have quite a few who like to come and either sleep in front of the camera or wander through. 

I did see a short video of one buck chasing girls, so it is obvious that the rut season is on.

The day broke wide open and I hunted up a tiny bit of color.

A blackberry bush that had climbed the barbed wire fence and was glowing from the morning sun.

What a brilliant morning to be alive.

 

Wild Flowers, roads, Lyme Disease

 Kolstad Road

I made my return to work this past week.  In truth I did actually miss going to work.  I like interacting with my co-workers and although our group is quite small and can be 'interesting' sometimes...I found that I missed them.

I was supposed to start back on the 4th of July but as nothing is ever written in stone, I responded to two call offs on the 2nd and the 3rd.  Easing back into the job with 40 hours in 4 days.

Hubby was feeling as though he could get through the day just fine as long as I made sure he had something to eat and helped arrange his meds.

I muddled through chores the first two shifts and then came home announcing that I probably had contracted a Lyme Diseased tick bite on my hike a couple of weeks ago.  I recall pulling a tick off me at late at night but never gave it a second thought.

Friday about 4am at work I got a horrid headache along with a stiff neck that quickly transpired into body aches and a fever.  My supervisor and told me to get some rest and he'd see me tomorrow as I was switching from night shifts to days shifts.

My night was horrible.  I woke up soaked in sweat and at 4am I had a fever of 102.1.  I got up drank a lot of water, took 2 Tylenol and took an Ice Pack back to bed.  I pushed the ice pack onto my face.  Finally after about 20 minutes I didn't think my face and eyeballs were going to explode.
In an hour my fever had dropped to 99.5 and the headache was gone, but I still felt like I had been kicked by a pro athlete.
I got up by then and decided to stay up.  I wanted in the worst way to call off as 'sick', but knew work would be hard pressed to cover my shift that close to start time on the 4th of July.

When I got back to work, the night shift super looked at me and raised his brows in question?  I shook my head.  He asked if I'd had a bug bite recently.  Then it hit me.  That tick, two weeks ago!
I went into the bathroom and took a quick look.  Yes there it was, the tell tale 'rash' or 'bulls-eye' red mark.

Monday I went to the clinic and was told I had classic Lyme's Disease symptoms and was given Doxycycline to take for 14 days.

My work route is currently under construction, the Romance bridge is completely gone and is being replaced.  For two nights I took and alternate route to work.  It is the same distance and about the same amount of travel time, but I dislike the twisted uneven narrow road. Some co-workers told me how to get around the construction and I immediately fell in love with the drive on this twisted road with breath taking views.

 Northridge Road

While at work I found some extremely beautiful wild flowers that grow naturally in our prairie areas.

I found these plants growing together and after doing some research with one of my co-workers we discovered that it was called Silk Prairie Clover or Dalea villosa.

 Silk Prairie Clover White

Silk Prairie Clover Purple

The purple clover would be easy for the casual eye to mistaken as Vervain which is another one of my favorite prairie flowers that have a beautiful blue/purple hue.

 Vervain

Another favorite, especially if you can catch it just beginning to open is Queen Anne's Lace.

 Queen Anne's Lace

Daucus carota

Wild Carrot

Actually, I've dug these up on wet days and found roots big enough to munch on.  They do have a very strong carrot flavor.  But the blossoms when they are just opening tend to have a purple hue to them.  This was also taken just after the sun was beginning to hit the valley and that may have helped the hue.

Well, between work and not feeling well at all I still managed to take some photos worth mentioning.

Of course there is a mystery plant that neither my co-worker or I can identify.  Neither one has seen this plant blossom so we don't know the color it might have been.  It is so unique that we are quite taken with it.

Edit and update:  This plant is called the Indigo Plant! The flowers are a beautiful blue.  My neighbor was able to ID it for me.

 Isn't this something else?

Anyway, that should catch everyone up my life in the slow lane.

I am having my first day where I actually feel quite normal and not as if I've been tackled or tossed around.  First day without a fever and a headache.

I am on the mend.