I committed the penultimate faux pas...

I accidentally took a picture of an Amishman! I think the only thing worse would have been if I had taken the picture on purpose.

There is an Amish farm that I ride by a few times a week and tonight the horses were out in the pasture grazing, rather than working with the farmer in the fields. I really wanted to get a picture of the baby above, but was also snapping photos of the grown horses. And yes, that's a baby-- just not a new born foal. I didn't pay enough attention to see if it's a male or female, but either way it's a Belgian baby.

Anyway, I was taking my photos when the baby and one of the big horses took off. I looked up and saw an old Amishman with a grey beard about down to his waist hiding behind a tree! He wasn't close enough for me to speak to, but I was afraid I'd done something wrong-- like maybe he was afraid I'd bother the horses or didn't want me taking their pictures, so I moved on. Needless to say, when I uploaded my photos to the computer there he was!

I'm sure most everyone knows that the Amish do not want to be photographed. I deleted the pictures and wouldn't have posted one here anyway, even though you could hardly see him. It would be disrespectful. But now I feel like I should stop by the farm tomorrow and apologize or something-- or at the very least let them know I was only trying to snap the horses and not them. I know they won't yell at me or anything, but I'm so nervous about going over there. I would never intentionally disrespect someone, though, and these are my neighbors. Not my next door neighbors, but close enough and I do pass by their farm frequently. It only seems right that I stop by.

This picture gives you an idea of how much bigger this little one is going to be. I do believe the lighter horse in the background is mom, and the other one is just another worker horse. I do love this baby's face, too.

All told I did 18 miles today. The weather forecast calls for rain tomorrow, so my 30-miler might have to wait for another day. But if the weather's decent I'll give it a try! And I'll stop by the farm (if I can keep my courage up I will, lol).

Here's a picture I took yesterday just because I liked the color contrasts between the light brown and bright green fields and also the almost-black of the trees: