A place to be born, live, grow, appreciate and love. Beauty, both natural and man made, unmatched anywhere. Beauty in an almost miraculous change, sudden, expected, of the seasons, yet almost unbelievable.
Summer--with its gentle breezes. The ever waving fields of golden grain, green hay, endless rows of rich green corn. Large red gabled barns with their accented whitewashed board fences and green pastures with grazing animals. Neat white farm houses in a setting of a grave of trees. Gentle flashes of dry weather lightning in a giving rain and sun, a gift from god. The rich green forested hills to the south, abundant with wildlife and plants.
Fall--a transformation from green to brown. A change of color for leaves and grasses to rust, red, tan, yellow, orange, sometimes to a multicolor combo with green. Tall corn stalks heavy with long full yellow ears of grain. Rich golden beans ripe for the picking. Apples and pears hanging from trees, walnuts and hickory nuts dropping from their branches. Squirrels and chipmunks hurrying to gather food for storage, a guarantee of winter survival. Deer emerge from the woods to browse on the unpicked grain and fall grasses, another sure sign of winters arrival. V formations of fat geese and ducks winging south to their winter feeding grounds--a hint of falls demise. A time for reaping and harvesting summers labors.
Winter--can be cruel to wildlife and domesticates alike but with a beauty of its own. Nothing can match a pure blanket of new snow untouched and brilliant. lakes drifting gently to earth, large and small, no two alike, drifting in the earth's surface winds and leaving an awesome white barren expanse. Stark naked forest, dormant, awaiting springs revival. Wildlife struggles for survival, the weak succumb to predators. The strong live to start another evolution cycle. Ice forms on streams and lakes, icicles drip in the sun to freeze again at the suns leaving. Crystal like no man can imitate. Holidays of faith and joy, spirit and good tidings. A time of cold refreshing air, dismal bleak cloudy days, bright blue sky and sun and good will. A paradise for young skaters and sledders. A time to live and enjoy.
Spring--many people's favorite season. A time of renewal, rebirth and wonder. Ice melting on the lakes and streams, warm showers penetrating the thawing earth. Wildflowers emerging from the rich humus soil, a gift to be appreciated. Tasty morels appearing from nowhere, succulent, tasty. Buds on tree branches swelling to burst into leaves. Leaves which can dissipate carbon monoxide at the same time manufacture life-giving oxygen. Birds urgently seeking to start nesting. Wildlife preparing for birthing of a new family. Fish rising to the shadows in search of warmth and food. An occasional violent storm, vicious, deadly and destructive, devastating--a tornado, unwanted but unavoidable. Swollen streams and rivers sometimes raging in flood to leave silt in the lowlands to rejuvenate growth. Seedlings push through the earth amidst warm showers and sunshine to start a new growth of crops. A wonderful miraculous transformation from dormant and barren grey to warm colorful beautiful growth. All these things should be recognized and appreciated for what they are--a heavenly gift to be received with great love and pride. All this is the God given beauty of every single year in INDIANA.