Bittersweet Monday

After taking down the wedding arbor at the Milltop center in Noblesville, I set out for one of my favorite Monday destinations. I reserve Monday's and Tuesday's for out days from the shop,as to many hours in the shop can make me a little stale and an outing usually freshens me up. I stopped at Sparky's Doghouse in Mount Summit, east of Lapel about thirty miles. I ordered one of their signature ham sandwiches, but they were out of ham! I have never had another sandwich there, and it was a good opportunity to try their cheeseburgers. WONDERFUL! It was raining like crazy, the hardest rain I have seen in months. It suddenly cleared and I looped by summit lake to see if there were any migrant waterfowl. Nope. But I did see dozens of green frogs rejoicing in the puddles in the dried out ponds there.I saw a green heron and a spotted sandpiper. Since I was out that way. And my primary and secondary targets blooped out, I gathered some bittersweet, a few days ahead of my usual start of September 1. I had shorts on and did not dream that I would be cutting bittersweet.It is not really a good idea to go after bittersweet without long pants and tall socks as poison ivy and thorns dwell in the same place. Despite that, I did pick up a little. Many places are bare this year, as always. Bittersweet is very much on the decline due to the use of Herbicide by farmers and county highway crews. Each year I devote four to five days of driving the back roads of Indiana to the tune of about a thousand miles on the dusty back roads far from civilization to get enough Bittersweet to satisfy the demands of the country living show.I have been doing this for almost forty years, and the nostalgia of stopping by at places that I visit once a year makes me feel connected to the rhythims of the earth.