A Ride in the Country

The first day of November was everything a Fall day in Mississippi should be — brilliant blue skies, trees just beginning to show their Fall colors, and field after field of hundreds of bales of freshly cut hay ...

The only thing that could have made it better was if the temperatures had been in the lows 70s, instead of the low 80s.

I decided to take a short drive, and headed southeast on a country road not far from the city limits of Vicksburg.

This old church sits "on a hill far away." I love the old church bell — can you see it there on the left? You can click on the picture to enlarge it, if you'd like. I wish I could have gotten some closeups of it.

Bluffs on the Big Black River

I soon discovered that I wasn't the only one out enjoying the glorious day.

There wasn't much traffic at ten o'clock on a Monday morning, so I was able to stop and capture a few pictures of some cows that were close to the road.

Must you take pictures of me while I'm eating?

Oh, No. 26, what big ears you have!And didn't your mama teach you that it's
not nice to stick your tongue out at people?

Cows are always so much fun to photograph. The expressions on their faces are priceless and always make me wonder what they're thinking.

If you would like to see more of my cow pictures, you can click here: Cows, Cows, and More Cows!.

Country Roads and Fence Rows

Last Friday, I grabbed my cameras and set out to explore some of the pretty country roads around Vicksburg. I had a wonderful time capturing God's "Fall decorations," in the form of wildflowers, berries, vines, and leaves just beginning to turn — and He gave me a brilliant blue sky as a backdrop. It just doesn't get any better than that, unless the temperature had been in the 70s, instead of the mid-90s.

This is one of my favorite country roads, which is about 20 minutes from our house. Even on a hot Indian Summer day, it looks cool and inviting.

(You can click on the pictures to enlarge them, if you'd like)

This aluminum cross is nailed to one of the trees, and it seemed to glow in the shade of those old oaks.

The fence rows were vivid with colorful wildflowers and leaves, and I love the way the sun filtered through the yellow leaves of this tree.

Leaves of three, Let it be! came to mind as I captured (with my zoom lens) this patch of Poison Ivy. Isn't it glorious this time of year!

A little farther down the road, I passed by an old cattle-holding fence and loved the green moss or lichen covering the posts.

I wasn't brave enough to risk getting stung by wasps, or bitten by goodness knows what else, in the grass between me and the fence posts, but I did manage to capture a few pictures.

These pretty purple wildflowers were in abundance along the roadside ...

More wildflowers

I took the next few pictures on Old Highway 80, between Bovina and Edwards, Mississippi ...

Can you imagine traveling on Highway 80 back in the days before interstate highways? It's a narrow two-lane road, by today's standards, and I can remember some truly scary trips in rainstorms following behind and meeting 18-wheelers zipping by, seemingly only inches away from our car. Country roads are nice, but I'm glad they're not the only way we have to travel these days.

This is a common sight this time of year, up and down Mississippi country roads:

And, of course, mile after mile of cotton and soybean fields, ready for harvest.

I stopped at a cotton field (not the one shown in the picture) and spent about 30 minutes (did I mention that it was HOT and DUSTY?) capturing fat, fluffy cotton bolls "up close and personal." Cotton is one of my favorite subjects to photograph, and I will share those pictures in my post for tomorrow.

Even though I've lived all my life in the "Deep South," I've never taken the time to see a soybean field up close — that is, until Friday.

If you are a regular visitor to Southern Lagniappe, you know that I can usually find beauty in just about anything (even wasps!) ... but I'm sorry, I just couldn't find anything pretty about soybeans! Interesting, maybe ... but not pretty.

I discovered, through Google, that these plants with beautiful clusters of purple berries are called Pokeweed.

I think the red stems are as striking as the berries ...

In closing, I'd like to share a little lagniappe I captured in these last pictures, which I wasn't aware of until I was editing the pictures. See if you can find it ...

Yes, it's this little dragonfly who was just "hanging out," enjoying the day, I suppose. I wish I had noticed him, but I was so intent on capturing the berries that I totally missed him.

I hope you will join me tomorrow for my post featuring macro photos of the cotton. I promise it won't be as long as this one!

Mississippi Country Roads (A Slideshow)

Mississippi Country Roads A Slideshow Presentation {Turn your sound up if you'd like to hear the music}