Sunday Stills #25

In your car/truck...

What a fun subject but since I did nothing but move my vehicle from the yard to the shed today... I have to grab something old.

On the way to work from 2017...Rush hour traffic on Bad Axe Rd.

Loganville, WI. Through the windshield on one of our many drives to a VA clinic. 

Last winter January 6th. Charlie and I. [We stopped so I could do this safely] My co-pilot loves to check things out any time I slow down.

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Sunday Stills

Drawn by Fog and mist...

I love misty mornings.

I love the droplets of water that collect on spider webs.
It is nearing August.
Wait? What?
Who?
No way! August? For real?

Yes.
Anyway this time of the year sometimes can present itself in wonderful ways if we have warm days and cool nights in the form of fog that rises out of the valleys and creeps across the ridge as the sun rises.

This morning it crept along from the north east with a very slight breath of air.
On the 21st it came in like a bulldozer from the east and within a few minutes the ridge was cloaked in mystical fog.

I had to be careful as the camera lense quickly got moisture on it. Normally that is not much of an issue, but from what I understand my little Nikon D5200 is a primma donna when it comes to moisture. Well, at least that is what I read.

I went to a different location this morning. The view is not as breathtaking as my normal place, but I wanted to see and try something different. How could I challenge myself?

I lucked out in being able to actually get wisps of fog unfurling across the soybean field. Imagine my luck again that the cropland had been rotated to soybeans. Had it been corn the effort may not have paid off this well.

The road/driveway in and out of this place has some incredible dips and curves and this morning the road looked as if it were from another world.

At dawn the fog was rising from the woods. The above shot was taken looking west towards my driveway that is hidden in the forest.

After the sun burst over the horizon in a golden glow, I was headed home and looked down this same road, but from the opposite direction.

The trees were literally glowing with orange colored light.

Eek gads.
I just checked the weather.

Fog is predicted for the next two mornings.
I am pinching myself.

Then I will go set the alarm clock and see if I can get up and see what the mists have in store for me tomorrow morning.

I can't wait!

Return to Tainter...Land

Tainter Hollow is an interesting area. It has more than one very steep narrow valley and a creek named Tainter Creek that runs through it.

The roads are gravel roads and there are many little bridges that cross Tainter Creek as it twists and turns.
There is Tainter Hollow E., Tainter Hollow W., and Tainter Rd. Tainter Rd is closed still.

I had a bit of time yesterday and it was gloomy and raining. I couldn't do garden work, yard work, and my shoulders and forearms needed a rest from all the weed whacking I'd done. I asked Rich if he'd mind if I went down to Tainter Hollow to look for wildflowers to photograph while he took a nap.

He shrugged.
I put some things in the Subaru and went to Tainter Land.
At one of my favorite bridges to stop and take photos, there were surveyors marking out sections on both sides of the road. Orange paint markings were in the gravel.
The floods of last year caused a lot of damage to our many 'Tainter Bridges'  [one of the reasons that Tainter Rd. was still closed].

Dang. I felt too self conscious to share the bridge with them, so I drove on.
Up the road a ways there is a dairy farm pasture.
Here I found Besse and Wilma, they looked a bit perturbed that I'd interrupted their "udderly" fantastic conversation.

Harriet and Fern, meanwhile were looking rather sneaky about something. I wonder if the girls were planning something, or just really curious about the lady in the muddy Subaru.

I circled around back to Tainter Hollow E. and headed back to the Public Land entrance.

I'm not sure the bridges will do very well if we have any more flash floods.

Tainter Rd is closed due to the culverts being washed away and the road being destroyed in one section. The other bridges all suffered damage from log jams last September.

I parked and walked the footpath through the tall grass along Tainter Creek. In the early spring this is a nice walk. Starting in May or June, the grasses and other plants are nearly as tall as I am and can make for a less enjoyable hike.
However I found two nice places to admire Tainter Creek before I turned back.

Give me a whole day and another person to go with and I could really have fun exploring. Tainter Hollow is in such a place that there is no cell phone coverage and a GPS won't get satellite reception. Not an issue for me unless my husband needs to get hold of me.

I headed out and passed a residence on Tainter Hollow W. This person's house/cottage is built on the hillside and has stilts supporting part of it. I often wonder how it stays on the hillside.
Anyway this was parked on the road next to the creek.
I shot it through my review mirror.

Sort of overkill for a trout creek right?

My time was up, I needed to head back home.

I got a peek at a few critters along the way.

When I got to the top of Hinkst Hollow, I did pull over and compose a shot. This is one of the straightest roads in our township. And the view is always amazing to me.

Normally you don't get such vistas where I live. But there are a few to be found.

I didn't get the wildflower shots I wanted. Nope, not at all.
Instead I had a very interesting drive.

It was nice to have a small break.

Here is hoping that the rain and gloom ease up. Notice that most of the fields are not worked up. Our farmers are way behind in planting. And those that did plant corn have some very yellow sickly plants coming up.

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.