Monday, December 1, 2014

December Landscape - Fields and Fencerows

Well, I was let out of the house by my recovery guardian to go for a short, slow and careful drive around some rural concession blocks to take some pictures.  Today is the beginning of week 5 since my surgery (can't quite believe it), and the brief freedom was wonderful.  And you benefit by seeing some pictures of what our landscape around here looks like this week.

This hayfield is pretty typical of the landscape here in late November/early December, just a little bit of snow in the ditches left from our big storm last week.  And the lines of tree silhouettes along the old fencerows seem very obvious at this time of year.

No fencerows here, but another hayfield, with freshly spread manure to enrich next year's crop.  A lot of farmers try to do their manure spreading in late fall, to have room in storage for more over the winter - yet another seasonal thing.

A lot of farms still have fairly small fields bordered with fencerows like this.  I'm told the typical small 8-10 acres fields on these old farms was about the area a team of horses could plow in a day.

You can't tell from this photo, but the farm on the left has had all its old fencerows removed, so the big machinery can drive from one end to the other - probably the area that huge modern equipment can plant in a day!  And I think the human eye somehow picks out the fencerows, like the one down the sideroad here, as a linear feature in the landscape better than the camera does.

Another small field, with a barn hidden behind it at the top of the hill.

Along many fencerows or field edges, plastic-wrapped haybales rest, waiting for the time they're needed over the winter.  Farm after farm has lines that we refer to with our grandson as giant white marshmallows.

There was actually sun when I started out, as in the top picture above, but instead of continuing sunny breaks and bright pictures, I got increasingly gray clouds, and light snow, til this was the corner down the road an hour later.

By then the fields had a light dusting of the white stuff.  It will likely continue to come and go with the temperature through the whole month.  We don't often get a green Christmas, but it does happen.

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19 comments:

  1. It's beautiful in a sparse kind of way. And very December-ish feeling. :-)

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  2. Lovely to have that brief time of freedom, and you have put it to the utmost wonderful test. Lovely trees on the fencelines, down here we also have bales wrapped in plastic, I have been told it is biodegradable?? Week 5, and driving, well done. Wishes for more good weeks of recovery to the 100% mark, Jean.

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  3. Very striking photos. It's amazing how the quickly the weather can change this time of year. Glad that you are feeling better :)

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  4. Your country scenes are so wonderful!! Love the tree lined fence rows.

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  5. Greetings from Dubai! Those are such lovely shots. Really enjoyed going through your blog. Have a great week ahead! Will be back soon...

    Shantana

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  6. Beautiful shots! Very classic Ontarian, looking at the landscape.

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  7. Hooray for freedom! No driving for me yet, the bone has to heal first. Love the snowy scenes.

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  8. Beautiful landscape photos!

    Glad you like my pictures.

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  9. Soon winter.....beautil! Have a nice day. /Lotta from Sweden

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  10. A lovely series of shots.

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  11. Glad to see that both the recovery and the photography are going well. In England they are now required by law to plough manure into the soil straight away, thus preventing the "good healthy smells" of the countryside.

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  12. No snow here yet but LOTS of rain.... which is no where near as pretty

    Mollyxxx

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  13. You have a great eye for making the ordinary interesting. We are going to visit our daughter in Bayfield today. I'm sure I'll be looking at fields a little differently.

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  14. I'm glad you got out for a nice drive and also got some great pictures of the farm fields. The snowy photo is pretty. I wonder if those bales of hay along the fence act as a windbreak or snow fence along the road. Have a great day.

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  15. Great transformation of the field through the snow.
    Since the images anz different effect.
    Greetings from Germany

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  16. The trees and fences are so interesting this time of the year.

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  17. a ride in the car, back roads only....what a treat. your images are really beautiful!! I am waiting, not so patiently, for my snow!! I am glad you were well enough for the ride!!!.......and yes, we live on a nice wide river with a spectacular view!!!

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  18. Glad to hear you got to get out in the car for a while. Nice of you to take pictures for us. : )
    I wish we had gotten a little snow instead of the ice we are getting.

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  19. How quickly things change at this time of year. Glad you got to go out.

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