Saturday, May 17, 2008

Old Vine & Deer

Here's a vine photo I posted a few months ago when we were in the midst of a different season. It clings to barbed wire and a fence post along my neighbor's field, and caught my attention one day as I was walking down the road. The contrast of the wiry tangles against the snowy field in the background was intriguing to me.

This next photo shows how the same vine looked last evening, as the sun was low in the clear sky. The field behind it is freshly plowed, providing poor contrast to the vine, hence the reason I ventured through the ditch to get a photo from a vantage point which allowed the sky to be the background. Wouldn't you know, right as I was crouched down in the weeds aiming my camera at the vine, a pickup drove by on the road. I have no idea who the people were, but they slowed considerably and offered friendly waves, probably also wondering what that crazy woman was up to.

************************************

************************************

************************************

Once I had climbed back out of the ditch, I continued walking and noticed the neighbor's heifers were suddenly running around excitedly kicking up their heels in their little pasture lot near the road. Squinting, I then saw there were two deer bounding through the field adjacent to the heifers' lot. Hurriedly, I snapped the picture below, which also shows my neighbor in his tractor (far to left) out in his field, most likely oblivious to the bit of excitement I had just witnessed.

(Hopefully, you do know that you can click on the photo to see a much larger image of it.)

****************************************

Enjoy your Saturday!!

7 comments:

Judy said...

I just happened upon your blog...and stopped to read for awhile. We dairy farm in the Fraser Valley of British Columbia. I'm not sure where in Iowa you live, but I have a brother farming in the Waterloo area...and we've been to visit.

I enjoyed my visit & will be back one day!

Mary Connealy said...

Those are pretty good action shots, Jeanelle. Good job.

I liked the vine, too, so don't let staring people stop you. :)

My daughter hit a deer on her way driving to school. The car kept working so she drove on but she was pretty badly shaken.
The first thing out of every boy's mouth as she told her news was, "Did it have a big rack? How many points?"

So then she ran over them, too!!!

Ruth Hull Chatlien said...

Jeannelle, good job capturing the deer. It's one thing to shoot them standing still, but when they're running.

You know, maybe I've been looking at too many religious blogs lately, but I see something almost like an abstract crucifix in that vine on the fence post picture.

Jeannelle said...

Welcome, Judy!

Very interesting! I live about 15 miles northeast of Waterloo. Are you from this area?

Do you dairy within view of mountains! I will need to visit your blog, too!

Thanks for stopping by.

*******************

Mary,

Oh, funny story about your daughter! I'm sure I've mentioned this before.....my daughter has hit deer FOUR times. Two dents on one car, two on another. We let her drive our Envoy once (bad idea), and she said she saw a deer in a field running toward her and almost panicked! We call her our "deer magnet", for it seems they are drawn to her.

Pat - Arkansas said...

I like both your vine/fence photos very much, Jeannelle. And I agree with Ruth; there's something abstractly cruciform about them. I particularly like the one with the snow behind it.
That is quite a capture of the running deer; well done.

Jeannelle said...

Hi, Ruth and Pat:

Thanks, but no skill was involved in taking that photo.....I just blindly pointed and shot!

Yes, I agree, that winter photo of the vine does resemble the Cross in a way.

Thanks for the comments!

Egghead said...

My favorite is the first photo which has the appearance of a heart. My favorite shape. Beautiful.