Our Winding Country Roads Lend Themselves To Grown Up Boy's Dreams.

Another bonus to living in rural climes.

Have you ever faced an oncoming combined harvester? A scary sight on narrow roads and one that needs great skill and dexterity to pass...oh, and a whole lot of guts. Have you seen the size and width of those fangs dangling and swinging from the front?

The golden wheat fields are being visited by these huge machines and the dust in the air stands testimony to it. Thank goodness they do what they do, as otherwise our daily bread would be in question. On the fields these machines are agile movers and don't seem so scary as they do close up.

By the way, the men sitting in the cockpits of each harvester are always smiling, happy and full of cheer. Who wouldn't be, driving such a beaut.

Tractors are a dime a dozen on our roads and either they pull a trailer filled with crops, or an appendage for some agricultural deed or the less often seen, a manure truck. At least you get to smell it before and after it passes you...and you know what, it brings back pleasant memories of a childhood spent in the country.

Last, but not least, is the ultimate of any man's dream ( I think? ) and it is a red siren. Yes, the fire engine, that has large enough dimensions to warrant a bit of nervous driving when faced with it.

Luckily, our village's fire engine is more ornamental than used. Fires are hardly ever present and the few times our truck sees action, is when there is flooding and the cellars have to be pumped dry. But a car needs to stretch its legs, so to speak and the red sirens of most villages are taken for a joyful ride around the village.

Not everyone can and is allowed to man the controls of these fire engines, but those that do take them for an outing, have huge smiles on their faces and I am sure they are itching to sound the siren!

This morning another of these red engines passed in front of me with a happily smiling man driving it. Do you think these men every dared to dream that they would drive a fire engine, back when they were playing with Thomas, the train?

Biggi