Fall Mosaic

I love driving across Wisconsin.

With a wife from greater Chicagoland, we've probably made the drive from the Twin Cities to Chicago 100 times in the past several years.

From the beauty of the St. Croix valley, through the rolling farmland in northwest Wisconsin, the varied topography near Eau Claire, the white pines of Black River Falls, the exposed sandstone cliffs near Tomah to the gentle grassland and farms of southern Wisconsin it's an ever changing landscape.

I've driven that stretch in just about every month of the year, but never has it been more beautiful than Sunday. The lack of snow cover made for a real treat.

Sunday's warm sun hangs low in the late November sky. As we drive northwest toward the cities, a myriad of color stretches out before us. Some grass still green in ditches and low spots facing south and west. The brilliant warm maize color of corn stubble in the fields. Hayfields with creamy muted wheat tones stretching for miles, punctuated by freshly plowed fields with rich brown and black soil turned up waiting for spring after the coming winter.

Throw in a series of ideal looking farmsteads with bright red barns and white farm houses and you've got a Currier and Ives landscape. As we approach Minnesota a few cirrocumulus clouds decorate the sky for an orangy dreamsicle sunset to top off a spectacular day of gently changing scenery.

With all the science of weather, all the debate about the effects climate change, and the occasional big storms whipping up mayhem, it's nice to just sit back once and a while and enjoy the beauty of the brilliant landscape we call home in the Upper Midwest.

PH