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On Saturday morning, April 7, Don and I drove out to Greene County to get some pictures of the famous Tulip Viaduct, or Tulip Trestle, in the early morning sunlight. You have to know the route on the small paved county roads, because finding signs for those roads is something of a challenge. The first time we drove out to see it a couple weeks ago we missed the turn completely and ended up southwest of the bridge in Bloomfield, Indiana. You can drive under the trestle on unpaved county road 480 E.

The 2,295-foot long trestle was built in 1905 – 1906, and is still in use by the The Indiana Railroad today. It is the longest railroad bridge of its type in the United States, and the third longest of its type in the world. It is 157 feet high at its tallest point above ground.

Here’s a selection of the pictures I got. Note the twelfth and thirteenth. Two hawks were sitting on top of the trestle on the north edge, sunning themselves. A few minutes after we first saw them, I looked up to see them both lifting one wing to soak up the warmth of the sun, just as the contrail of a passing jet passenger plane crossed above them headed west, perfectly parallel with the trestle. It looks like the birds are saluting the plane.

I only had the mid-range telephoto on one of the two cameras with me, but did manage to get a picture of a red hawk, both in tree, and in flight. There is also a picture half way down of two geese we heard coming from the fields north of us, as they flew down above the creek headed for the trestle. You can see one of them just to the left of the center of the picture, the other is hard to spot, but is to the right and somewhat up from center. Click to enlarge the picture.

Don and the IU REDCAR south of the trestle.

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Saturday morning we made a quick trip to the Bloomington Farmers’ Market. It is held during warm season every Saturday in an open plaza just south of the Bloomington municipal government building. A brass band was playing for passers-by, and children were playing around the fountain, despite the slight autumnal chill in the air. In the background is the tall brick chimney, a relic of many years ago when the area was filled with light industry. We had hoped to find one last water melon for the season, and we found one vendor who had a half dozen large, beautiful melons.

The fall foliage has been turning for over a week or more, although peak is probably still a few days away. So Sunday morning we drove out to McCormick’s Creek State Park, a small but beautiful and popular state park with many miles of easy hiking trails, less than a half hour drive west of Bloomington.

Following are some of the photos from the walk in Autumn woods, starting off with the Spirit of Autumn, and after that the Wizard with his Birds Head Staff.

The small but popular waterfall has got to be one of the most photographed landmarks in this part of Indiana. The water flow was very light, we have not had a lot of rain since mid-summer, and whole families were climbing up and down the waterfall. A rounded area of rock bulges out below the top of the falls, providing something of a staircase for the nimble and careful.

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The water scarecrows appear to be succeeding in their mission assignment, to keep the deer away from the tomato plants they did not destroy earlier, so they have a chance to recover and produce some tomatoes.

A variety of tomatoes, including a dark purple heirloom grape and a large Amish Paste Roma variety. Although we appear to be keeping the deer at bay for the moment, the birds apparently have discovered they can light on a tomato as it is ripening, and peck the heck out of the top and upper side, thus ruining it for us. I toss them on the ground for the turtle, and try not to begrudge the birds their discovery.

We managed to keep the squash borers at bay a little longer than last year, and actually got a small crop of viable sugar pumpkins. As many had to be thrown away because the insects and various blister beetles that love to live on the moist underside of the pumpkin where it lies on the ground, or around the top stem area, had managed to bore into the skin so badly the pumpkins were ruined and could not be used or kept. We got a handful of nice butternut squash, too, including one huge one seen in the photo.

The volunteer sunflowers that popped up in four different spots were a constant source of beauty and photo opportunities for weeks as they matured and blossomed. They are fading now, their huge heads dropping, while the goldfinches come back again and again to rip the mature seeds out of the heads.

Aside from the stunning color images, it was interesting to play around with Photoshop and come up with some really nice black and white images, like this one.

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