Hay-stacking season..

I've picked a prime time to quit my job at the movie theater: I have forgotten how magical late afternoon hikes can be.... :D

Past few days the hot, hot sun (summer is finally here, it seems!) beat up the tempo on everything and my schedule is packed back-to-back with meetings, shooting, designing, consulting, writing, editing and everything in between and menial labor on top. I got up at five today to assist day in the vineyard, worked until noon, drove to town and then walked a few extra miles home, in dire need of a shower and something to drink.. A gap in the timetable enabled me to take a small nap, but I was so tired when I woke up after an hour, I was nigh nauseated. But the next meeting followed, which was lovely and then the next, which was a strain and I found myself in the middle of the evening city with two bucks in my pocket and a heavy bag of gear on my back, thinking, what next. Tomorrow I will spend the day helping to organize a concert, the Saturday will be spent in another city, shooting and exploring and Sunday I have a wedding shoot, from early morning to... probably early morning next day. Tired doesn't even begin to describe it. So, what do I do?

It just so happened that the General was at his parents' farm in St. George and a train was leaving in that direction in ten minutes. So, half an hour later, seven or so p.m., my fat little feet are flippidy flopping through towns and villages, past ice-cream stands and old churches, pass cemeteries and endless fields of emerald green wheat. Takes about an hour to get from the station in the valley to the farm in the upper knolls. It's hay-gathering season in St. George, so all the meadows were either in stripes or dotted with the hay rolls. Everything smelled sweetly of freshly dried grass and tractors were going everywhere like green bumblebees. It was magic. The hot southern wind, the tiny bugs in my hair, the tired, tired, endlessly surreal ending of the day. I haven't felt this good since we were going climbing in the evenings - but that is a winter's hobby. Summer is... for walking. I am as good a walker as some people are swimmers or drivers. You wind me and release me in a general direction and I don't ever have to stop. Just for the fun of it, I kept raising my thumb at passing cars, but I honestly doubt those (otherwise friendly) people knew what exactly I was asking of them. Looks like I will have to single-handedly - pun intended - teach the good people of this county what a raised thumb of a happy country-road hiker means :P

Oh, and I saw some really cool bees swarm, taking a rest on a small apple tree for the night. Silly buggers. They were bigger than the tree :D