"Fields Near Crowden", oil, by Sheila Vaughan

Yesterday I took what is best described as a restful bike ride. Everything seemed to be resting – the birds, the cows, the calming hills and roads, even the wind which seemed strong but somehow at peace. I passed many cows on the country roads, and all of them were stretched out on the pasture grass, sleeping or just lightening up the afternoon. Birds were soaring and sweeping around the fields, but always in a way that seemed still and undisturbed, and the old river water was wandering drowsily along as if it had just awakened. My legs worked hard on the ride (there were, as always, the bothersome hills), but they always found some rest on the flat roads that ran among farms and fields.