Indian Summer in Swede Holler

In the interests of fair disclosure, I posted all but one of these photos to Facebook on Friday --- so it's creative recycling this morning. But I was happy with the way they turned out and don't mind an encore.

A little earlier, I'd helped (kind of) decorate the courthouse gazebo for Christmas --- something heretofore handled by professionals who worked for a firm now out of business. That went well, other than the discovery at the end of the procedure that the garland that circles the stop of the structure should have gone up first rather than last.

Then, rather than doing something useful, I decided to take a drive up Swede Holler to Wheeler Bridge and back --- since it was a beautiful Indian Summer afternoon.

Or at least what I call Indian Summer, and there seems to be little agreement about what that term means, where it came from, how it developed or exactly when it occurs. I call it any mild dry fall day after a hard freeze when the sun's shining, the leaves have fallen, the light is mellow and there seems to be a haze --- as in rising from strategically placed woodland campfires --- in the air.

The road up this little valley --- partly graveled, partly dirt --- is not very busy now, and you can drive as slowly as you like. I saw deer, an eagle and wild turkeys grazing in a newly harvested soybean patch.

Once upon a time, however, when we traveled by horse, horse and buggy and early automobile, this was part of the main trail linking Chariton to northwest Lucas County, Indianola and Des Moines beyond.