Rolling with a Limp

We were on our way back to the state highway after visiting the Painted Hills in Central Oregon, driving a gravel road beside hayfields irrigated with old wheel line sprinklers.  In the background are hints of the colors of the Painted Hills and in the foreground, a dilapidated wheel at the end of a sprinkler line.  Joining with Madge Bloom's Rurality Blog Hop #75.  (Click on photo to enlarge.)

In the Hills

It's been "forever" since I've linked up with Madge's Rurality Blog Hop, but I've been doing some "rural" things lately.  :-)  Actually, I live in a rural area but only recently have I been photographing "rural" scenes, and that's because the beauty of late spring in this part of the country is so wonderful.  Over Memorial Day weekend, my husband and I made two drives into the hills/mountains near our home.   It's all so green and fresh, with wildflowers in abundance.  Once the heat sets in, things will dry up fairly quickly.  Until then, scenes like this tree and pond are so inviting.

 

Still on the bank

I've blogged about this old car before and I've collected several images for "rusty and crusty" in my Flickr photostream, but I just had to stop and photograph it again.  It is embedded in the bank of the Minam River right above where that river joins the Wallowa River.  I have no idea how long the old vehicle has been there, but it's a very long time!  Old cars used to be employed to stabilize river banks where they tended to flood.  I'm joining in with Madge's Rurality Blog Hop.

Beauty in a Rural View

Mid-September in the upper valley of the Wallowa, bordered by the Blue Mountains. Linking up with Madge's Rurality Blog Hop.

On the Edge of the Canyon

Living on the east side of the Blue Mountains, it's easy to drive west for a bit of wilderness and a look into and across the Umatilla Canyon.   Late-summer evenings are the best time to view this beauty.  Linking up with Madge's Rurality Blog Hop.

Positive Burning

I'm a bit late to Madge's party (Rurality Blog Hop), but I actually have a rural image to share!   As I've written previously, I live in a valley that is a neighbor to a very large, agricultural valley---the Grande Ronde. Harvest time means more than grain--it means grass seed, mint, sunflowers, alfalfa third-cutting, and a bit later--sugar beets.  If the grass seed is fine fescue, the last stage after harvest is field burning. Farmers pull a propane burner behind a tractor to set the fire.   It's a dramatic scene to see grass fields burning cleanly among the other crops. The dramatic smoke soon dissipates and a "clean" black field remains.

Below are some of the stages leading to the image above.