FIELDS OF SPRING HAY BALES

The Monday rains had washed away the heat, and as the sky began to clear, I headed out in the evening to take pictures of the countryside.

I passed a horse farm on my way and snapped this image of these hay bales which had been stacked near farm machinery all winter.

Imagine my surprise when I came upon this hill with fresh rolls of hay bales.  I'd always associated baling hay as a fall endeavor, but I learned it happens in the spring too.  The light and dark lines on the hill puzzled me, though.

When I came upon a field, plowed but not yet baled, I could see how the lines must have been generated.

As I drove on, I could see it wasn't just one field with spring hay bales.  Field after field along the road was filled with them.

I was really enjoying the scenes unfolding before me, and I began photographing the bales from various angles.

This one turned out to be a favorite.  Having exhausted my creative photography of the bales, I drove on and began taking pictures of deer, which seemed to be popping up everywhere.  I'll share those in another blog post.

It was time to head back home, and I swung past the hay fields one last time.  The setting sun was providing a beautiful backdrop for my final hay bales image.

But further down the road, I got a spectacular image of the setting sun.  No bales of hay.  Just gorgeous farm country.