In the picture below, do you see the white dot to the left of center? That's my destination. It's amazing how far you can see those grain elevators out here on the prairie.
In thinking about my journey a memory came back to me of having these same travel thoughts once before. I recalled many years ago as young girl riding in a truck with one of my mother's cousins, going with them on a trip to the store from their farm in western Kansas. It seemed like such a long ride in wide open spaces with few buildings to be seen anywhere. I was unaccustomed to such long distances between short stops. I wondered how people could live so far from other people and places and now here I am, in the drivers seat.
I wish I would have had my real camera with me on this trip, the pictures above were taken with my phone camera. On the way home I saw a buggy pulled by a really nice looking team of horses and some sort of high clearance machinery coming at me that took up 3/4 of the road. I often see hawks, sometimes turkey vultures and one spot I've frequently seen scissor-tail flycatchers. There's the scattered deer and sometimes coyote. One thing I haven't seen much of is rabbits. In western Kansas I remember seeing the tall ears of jack rabbits a lot, but can't say that I've ever seen them here. What was long distances in my youth are now times for discovery and meditation, recalling thinking about such thoughts from my youth.
Post your view on the way to your grocery store and leave me a link in my comments along with thoughts you have on your journey. I'm interested in what kind of differences/similarities we will find.
12 comments:
Great post... Don't you love those wide open Kansas skies!?
We've been seeing more badgers and porcupines lately, in addition to the "usual" birds, and deer... Do you see them around your place?
I especially love the Kansas wide open skies on clear, cool summer nights. With no moon there a millions of stars in the sky.
Porcupines are rarely heard of or seen around here and the only badgers I've seen have been roadkill, which is really as close as I would want to get to one. I have had a roadrunner on my back porch, an armadillo in my yard and a oppossum in a tree right outside my back door. OH, I had a raccoon or two washing mulberries in my swimming pool, I'd see their paw prints on the side of the pool every morning. And I have a picture of a cottontail trying to keep cool under my tree in the front yard. So we do have our share of wildlife here. You just have to keep quiet and watch.
Hi! Moonshadow. This link says it all for me!
Enjoy the road to Gundagai, Australia. As it reminds me of your story here.
Take Care
Peter
Nice song, Peter. So do you live in the city or out in the country? Would your trip to the store be on a city street or down a country road?
sorry I haven't been around in a while. things at work have been keeping me too busy. I hope you're well, but from the looks of your office, you're probably really busy too. I'll swing by again soon.
René
www.workingauthor.com
Hi! Our grocery store is only 5 minutes up the road through a suburban area. Not much to describe really.
We live on the outskirts of Sydney, on an acre and a bit. If you have time, you can visit us via “Google Earth”. Just put in Warragamba dam, Sydney. We live just south from it.
When we walk up the road to the top of the hill, we can see the Sydney CBD. A far way, about 55km’s, but we’re fairly high up so we can see it.
At the top of this hill is the Sydney Water Catchment Area, which covers 9000 square kilometres of natural bushland, rivers and streams.
When I go for my walks along the catchment area there are flocks of kangaroos and their offspring, we call Joey’s grazing on the grass.
Occasionally the kangaroos jump the fence and become roadkill unfortunately.
That’s about it.
Take Care
Peter
Good to see you, Rene! I was just over at your blog reading your angry reader's email. I left a comment. Good review, BTW.
Peter! Thank you for coming back and leaving such a nice description of your area. I checked out google earth and it looks like you have a lot of nice trees in your area too. So kangaroos gather in flocks? Guess I had never thought about it before. Sad about the joeys becoming roadkill. Do these get very big. We have problems with deer and they can do a lot of damage to a vehicle.
Hi! I haven't seen any big kangaroos like that the ones out west. A red kangaroo can be from 3-9 feet (0.9 - 2.7 m) tall and can kill a person.
Most country vehicles have bullbars to fend the kangaroos off, but they can still cause some damage.
We also have a deer problem in the Sutherland Shire, which is south of Sydney. They wander out of the National Park looking for food and end up in people's front yards. Every now and then, they have to cull them.
I use Google Earth a far bit to visit. Cheaper than a air plane ticket!
Regards
Peter
Our deer population is kept down by states issuing hunting licenses and each hunter gets a specified number of deer tags. I'm sure the number issued depends on the herd populations. We have hunters that hunt with guns and we have bow-hunters too. I think bow-hunters have a longer hunting season than that of ones with guns. There is also hunting seasons for birds like pheasant, quail, duck and geese. There's a lot of places to hunt out here on the prairie.
I used google earth to see if I could see my house and our area is all blurry. But if you put in Cheney Kansas, that's where I was going to the grocery store at. The white dot off center of the second picture. We're 20 or so miles south of that.
These pics are very beautiful. :)
Greetings Elaine! Thank you, sure is a lot of blue in them that day. Not a cloud in the sky. The quality's not bad even though I took them with my camera on my phone (pocket pc).
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