Nature Photo Essay: A Perfect Summer Day

Early July, and the meadow was ripe for harvesting. The first crop of hay of the year was about to get cut. I had been watching the grasses grow quickly throughout the spring and early summer. Lots of rain, sun, and warm weather. Growing grass is happy grass.

The adjoining meadow gets cut and baled into hay, usually twice a year. Only one crop if it's a particularly dry summer. I had been able to catch the crew baling the hay a number of times, but I had never been around when the grass was being cut.

So when i heard the sound of a tractor working outside -- and knowing there was no planting or harvesting to do in midsummer -- I figured it must be hay cutting time. Good. I was interested to watch, not that it's anything spectacular. Just good clean country fun. What's going on.

I walked out the lane to photograph the ripe meadow. It was a perfect summer day: sunny, warm, low humidity, spectacular cumulus clouds, free of biting insects, even. I waded into the field opposite the one he was cutting. Facing into the wind, I enjoyed the waves upon waves of grass as the breeze blew relentlessly toward me. A lake of grassy waves, invigorating and mesmerizing.

Photographing a scene consisting of innumerable grass stalks presents a problem. Oh, it's easy to take a shot, but when the living scene is portrayed as a flat, two dimensional photograph, the feeling of being there can evaporate. What was needed was a darker background to set off the yellowish seed stalks. Drifting over near the fencerow I found just that. There the darker green of the tall forbs (weeds, if you will) provided the correct setting.

I made sure to catch the farmer's eye, for safety's sake, to let him know I was there. We exchanged waves. Thereafter he continued to watch out for me, while watching what he was doing as far as cutting the crop.

I found myself interested in the signs left by the tractor. The tracks left by the wheels were fairly wide, bare rows. The cutting implement seemed to have sliced the grass off like a razor, leaving a row of inward-laying stalks folded from the left and from the right. Ready to be scooped up by the baling equipment after a day or two of curing in the dry, warm sunny weather. Smelling really sweet, like cut grass does.

Simple pleasures are best. Priceless, actually. Clean air, a healthy environment with lots of green space. No admission fee required or collected. No need for crowded, expensive, polluting amusement parks.

Just walk out into nature on a glorious day. Leave your cares at the door, or carry them along and let the environs melt them away. You'll be glad you did.

Recipe for a Perfect Summer Day

• Sunny
• Warm
• Low Humidity
• Cumulus Clouds
• Open Green Space
• Nowhere else to be
• No particular time to be back home, or anywhere else

Combine ingredients...enjoy. Live.