barns | Change Is Hard

December 10, 2022
by dawnkinster 14 Comments

A little bit of Christmas

A friend and I got to visit the Meijer Sculpture Garden this week. The conservatory building was all decked out for Christmas, which is why we planned our visit.

There’s been lots of expansion to the building since I was there, notably a huge room with giant marble sculptures of faces on all four walls.

But the main attraction were the Christmas trees, each decorated as they might be countries from around the world.

They were all beautiful, and it was so much fun to stop and examine them.

All those trees, lined up or tucked into corners sure got me into the holiday spirit!

And then we wandered in the desert room, filled with catus and seasonal poinsettias…

…and the tropical room filled with jungle plants and more poinsettias….

…and watched a model train wander through a village filled with iconic Grand Rapids buildings made out of natural materials…

…surrounded by more poinsettias.

We even spent some time trying to figure out a couple of art installations.

Even after reading the notes on the wall we didn’t really get it. But it was fun trying.

We stopped at the gift shop, where I stared at a bag of marbles for a long time, remembering all the games we used to play back a few decades when I was in grade school. I still like the way marbles feel, and almost bought this bag, just for fun.

But I didn’t. We bought lunch instead and then headed home, taking the back roads the better to find some barns. Of course we found one…

..or two…

…or three.

So fun!

Thanks, Linda, for driving us around on our latest adventure. Let’s schedule the next one soon!

April 8, 2022
by dawnkinster 32 Comments

And then there were barns

Just last week I was heading up to Michigan’s thumb to attempt an astrological photo shoot. As you read, it didn’t exactly go as planned. But I did get this:

So I’m happy. But I also can’t wait to try it again! The end of the month will be more moonless nights…if I can get the weather to cooperate maybe I can get an even better image. Maybe one with the whole Milky Way in the frame!

But until then there are always barns.

*The cow caught my attention. Yes, it’s a real cow. I wasn’t certain at first.*

On the way home from my starlit night I took my time, wandering around big farm blocks, teased by wide open vistas filled with barns.

*Just a plain grey barn is beautiful too.*

There are so many beautiful barns in the thumb!

*I’ve shown you this one before, but it’s so cool, it deserves another showing.*

It seemed like I’d see one across a huge field, get there, and then see more on the far side of another field!

I wasn’t too sure where I was during most of my barn hunting, but it didn’t really matter — how lost can you get in a thumb?

But it wasn’t just barns that I found fascinating. I loved the big expanses of fields, and the tree lines in the distance too.

*The pops of white birch and the bit of yellow made this a must take shot.*

And there was this guy who moved a wing and caught my eye while I was focusing on a barn over his left shoulder.

*He stared at me, decided I was no threat and went back to surveying for food.*

What barn was I focused on? Well, these two:

But there were so many to choose from.

I could have driven around looking at them all day. It was almost as fun, in a different way, as shooting at night out under the stars.

Almost.

February 15, 2022
by dawnkinster 29 Comments

Owl….no barn…no owl…hunt

Sunday morning, in preparation for the Super Bowl, I left home with my camera.

*Multiple barns make for an efficient shot.*

OK. So maybe it didn’t have anything to do with the Super Bowl, maybe it was just me wanting to get out of the house for a little bit. With a camera and nowhere specific to go.

A friend had told me about a snowy owl that she’s seen a few times over near Katie’s vet. Lots of open fields and telephone poles out that way so I figured maybe I would finally see a snowy owl if I headed in that direction.

So I did.

And I might have seen one. Something kind of large flew directly over the car, while I was still on the freeway. I only caught a glimpse of the underside, the same color as the light grey sky, it blended into the nothingness above me and then disappeared. It might have been a hawk. But it felt more round than a hawk in flight would be.

Anyway, when I got to the town nearest the vet I entered a pretty heavy snow squall. It was hard to see anything, and I was trying to figure out if I should just turn around and go home. How in the world would I see a white owl in a blizzard?

*Hard to see a white barn in a blizzard too.*

I crept along, passed Katie’s vet and turned south on the next big road, looking for the small rural road she said the owl had been seen on. It seemed sort of far, and figuring I had missed it, I stopped looking at the street signs just about the time I passed the road.

Darn it all.

So I drove on to the next road and a place to turn around. But what was that over there? A very nice barn? Well, might be I should just go over there first and then go back and find that owl road.

And up there at the next, quite far away, corner, well that looks like a good barn too. And wait, over there, I need to see what’s over there for sure. Good thing the snow let up.

And that’s how it went. On my way back to the road that might or might not have an owl I kept finding more barns. And the snow came and went.

Sometimes on the left would be sunshine and blue sky while on the right a blizzard raged.

*Another version of red, white and blue.*

I eventually did wander down the road I had originally intended to explore. Never did see an owl of any color. Saw a couple turkeys cross the road, but they didn’t want their pictures taken.

And then I turned a corner and saw the sweetest little barn with a dormer. Something niggled at me and then I remembered. I’d been by this exact barn about a month ago. I had no idea where I was by then, but I knew if I was repeating barns it was time to head for home.

I have to say this adventure was mostly a barn hunt on which I might have seen a snowy owl float overhead for a moment. In fact I think I’ll just say that’s what it was.

Yep. I saw a snowy owl on Sunday, and I got home in time to watch the game too.

Win/win

January 13, 2022
by dawnkinster 39 Comments

Barn music

I’m having trouble with my clarinet. Some of it is me having to play through a mask. But most of the problem revolves around sticky pads. For several notes when I move my fingers there’s a delay in the movement of keys.

*This farm was the reason I got off the freeway.*

In normal times that might not be a huge problem, as I’d be one of twelve or so clarinets. But at Tuesday night’s rehearsal we only had two clarinets so I could hear myself, and it wasn’t good.

Wednesday I drove my clarinet to a music store about an hour away. Of course nothing was sticking when the technician checked it out. I told him the problem only becomes noticible when the instrument is warm, after I’ve been playing for half an hour or more.

He nodded and took it into the back room, I guess to give it a stern talking to.

In a few minutes he brought it back, saying the pads were dirty and he cleaned them. Of course, until I try to play it for awhile I won’t know whether the issue is fixed.

I guess I should get to practicing.

So where do the barns fit in? Well, I drove through farm country to get to the music store, and had my camera with me. I got off the freeway and wandered around those snowy fields for a little bit before hustling home.

I figured that way I wasn’t wasting all that gas just to get a couple key pads cleaned.

Right?

Right.

August 24, 2021
by dawnkinster 30 Comments

More practice

I got a couple of tips (thanks DailyMusing!) about how to maneuver through WordPress’ blockhead editing system, particularly with images.

So here goes….I should be able to delete a photo. Guess I should insert a photo first:

Then I’ll see if I can remove it….one moment please…

OH!!!!! That worked!

But wait….now there’s nothing there, and you can’t see the image…because…I REMOVED IT! 🙂 🙂 🙂

So here it is again…

It’s just a barn taken on my trip home from the night sky camping trip I took a week or more ago. In fact I have a few other barn images from that drive home. It was prime farm country, after all.

She gave me a tip on how to do a gallery too, let’s see if I can do that:

Well, THAT was interesting! I don’t know if there’s a way to decide what goes where, but at least it’s a gallery!

The trick now will be for me to remember what I did.

Always something.

Edit: I just figured out you can click on any of the pictures in the gallery and see them bigger. They’re really better bigger.

June 30, 2021
by dawnkinster 16 Comments

Smiling in the rain

Seems like the weather all across the country has gone crazy. Temperatures over 100F (37.7C) in Oregon where it’s usually cool and wet. Flash flood producing rains here in lower Michigan and elsewhere.

*At first I thought the only barn photos I’d get would be from the Plaza reststops on the turnpike.*

Everything here is soggy from days and days of constant rain, and it’s been raining all day today too. You’d think I’d be kind of depressed by all the dark skies and thick humid air. But I’m not. In fact I’m finding it sort of cozy to be curled up inside on the sofa listening to rain on the windows.

*Right up against a winding, hilly road, I’m surprised it hasn’t been hit and taken out by a truck.*

There’s no pressure to go out and weed, though that’s going to be a huge job once it stops raining. No walks in the park, no bike rides that I never seem to get to. Just lots of time to attend meetings and get clerical stuff done for the two nonprofits where I volunteer.

*These first images are from Pennsylvania, with picturesque farms tucked away in the mountains.*

Even Katie seems content to nap. Though she’s starting to hint that she’d like to post here soon. She says she has stuff to say. Of course she does. She’s a sheltie.

But this post was supposed to be about what made me smile lately, so let me tell you about a impromtu trip I made to Baltimore this past weekend.

The Truck Safety Coalition was putting on a small local lunch with a couple of important objectives. One, it was an opportunity for the volunteers local to that area to get together after the long Covid shutdown. And two, we just hired a new Executive Director, and he would be attending, so it was something of a welcome lunch.

My husband and I decided to go. Katie had been eating well for almost a month and seemed like her old self. I booked her for 4 nights at camp. We planned on driving the nine hour trip, my husband’s first excursion since early 2020.

*I had great weather, no significant rain the whole weekend.*

Then, 2 days before our departure Katie decided she no longer liked the food she’d happily been eating. We began to hand feed her, one kibble bit at a time. Sometimes she wanted it dry. Sometimes she wanted it wet. Sometimes she’d only eat it if it was soggy.

No way she could go to camp.

So husband stayed home with her and I went alone. I spread the trip over two days each way, and most of it was on either the Ohio or Pennsylvania turnpike. As you might imagine I saw lots of beautiful barns. But it was such a hassle to get on and off the turnpike, particularly in Ohio, that on the way over I didn’t stop or take a single photo.

*My last day of driving was such a pretty day.*

But, after a wonderful weekend among friends, on the way home I stopped twice, once in Pennsylvania and once in Ohio. Each time I drove a big country block and stopped for whatever barns I could find, then jumped right back on the turnpike again.

*Red barns and golden wheat sure were pretty.*

So the images in this post are from those two wanderings. I can’t show you the images I took at the lunch because I don’t have permission from any of those people to go public. Plus, it was just a bunch of pictures of people most of you don’t know eating and talking and laughing.

*Add in some orange ditch lilies and you can’t help but stop for a photo!*

Suffice it to say it was wonderful to be back with my Truck Safety Family, though sadly we had two new families represented. There are always new families and that’s the part that doesn’t make me smile.

But barns? Barns will always put a big ole grin on my face.

*This one was a gift shop that wasn’t open when I drove by. The better not to spend more money!*

February 15, 2021
by dawnkinster 37 Comments

Surprise around the corner

I went out this week intent on getting images of a couple barns I’d seen on my way back from Selma. It wasn’t a great day for photography, grey with a flat and boring sky. Not great light. Kind of drizzling.

I took a picture of this barn 2 years ago, through my car windshield. This time I parked in it’s driveway and got out.

But it wasn’t a great day for hanging at the lake or hiking up a mountain either, so I figured what the heck, I’d go get those barns.

I almost didn’t get out of the car for this one, but it turned out to be pretty interesting with it’s drooping roof and missing siding.

And after that second one I headed down an unfamiliar road in the direction I figured Auburn would be. I turned left when the road ended because that felt like the right direction to go.

Such stately buildings, all red brick and white trim.

And noticed all these beautiful buildings behind a black wrought iron fence. I figured it was a military school of some sort. And then I saw this house and the sign in front of it.

This is Booker T. Washington’s home. Can you guess, now, where I was?

I began to look for a place to turn around and park. Because it’s not every day you accidently stumble upon Tuskegee University.

The entrance to the university.

And you for sure as heck can’t just drive right on past it. Even if it is drizzling and cold and getting dark. I would love to go on a tour of the house, and the university. I need to do some investigating and find out if there are such things.

Did you know he had 3 wives?

Meanwhile I’ve ordered Booker T. Washington’s autobiography. I want to know more about his children too, and what they did with their lives. I hope I can find that.

This woman sounds fascinating too.

You just never know where you’ll end up when you go barn hunting.

That’s for sure.

Barns, barns, everywhere a barn.

January 31, 2021
by dawnkinster 46 Comments

Window of Opportunity

There was a weather window of opportunity and I took it and ran. In between major storms crossing the country were a couple of snow free days.

Interesting sky made me stop in mid-Indiana farm country.

It’s fourteen driving hours from my home in Michigan to our lake house in Alabama. And that’s if I only stop for gas and bathroom breaks.

Can’t resist a red barn glowing in what little light there was.

Seriously? What are the odds I only stop for gas and bathroom breaks?

The the sun began to fight it’s way through the clouds and this farm lit up.

Either way that’s two long days of driving, and this trip I had a meeting to attend virtually too. That’s an hour a half spent sitting in a parking lot while on the phone, making no Southerly progress.

They must have had an ice storm the day before, when the sun came out I could see the trees were covered in thick ice.

But on the whole I had a nice drive, the roads weren’t bad, traffic wasn’t horrible, and I got to see some pretty stuff along the way.

I stopped only five hours away from home but after more than seven hours of traveling, in Columbus Indiana. After checking into a room, I went out looking for something to eat. I ended up following the road right into the next town over, Seymour.

The bridge looking back toward the west.

Which happens to have a stinking cute bridge that perfectly frames their county courthouse as you travel west to east. I didn’t get a photo of that because I didn’t have my camera with me that evening, and because there was nowhere to park. So you’ll have to image driving up over a winding entrance to the bridge, and bursting out at the top to see the tower of the courthouse framed in the red tubes of the bridge.

An almost whimsical building, with fussy details and beautiful colors.

I went back to Seymour the next morning, found a place to park in town and explored the bridge, and the courthouse grounds.

This modern sculpture next to the more victorian architecture of the courthouse struck me.

I couldn’t resist checking out the tall sculpture, even though it meant more walking and it was a bitter 17F degrees.

Reaching toward the sky.

Turns out it is the county’s homage to their fallen war veterans. The interior walls are scribed with names and dates. And letters home.

There were long letters, and short, each with the name and date of death of the author. Some were killed only days after sending the letter home.

It was heartbreaking.

A grandson’s love.

After spending almost an hour wandering Seymour I figured I’d never make it to Alabama at the rate I was moving south, and I got back in the car, resolute not to stop again until I needed gas.

Five miles down the freeway I glanced to my left and saw white farms shrouded in a layer of fog rising from the snowy fields under a blue sky. And there was an exit right in front of
me.

Couldn’t NOT stop.

The fog was freezing thick on everything.

Nature’s art.

I was on a narrow country road with not another person or car in sight. So I stopped for quite a long time.

Frosty fencing.

But I knew time was flying by and I’d only progressed a few miles down the road, so as the sun rose I tore myself away, and headed back toward the freeway.

One more image. Really, only one more this entire trip. 🙂

By focusing on the road and not the pretty sights I finally made it to Kentucky.

Kentucky had snow on the ground! I chose to think of it as cotton instead.

But do you know what they have a lot of in Kentucky? Yes, you are right.

Saw this guy from the freeway, and there was an exit right there!

I only drove a couple miles down one little road which was running right next to the freeway and I found three barns.

A little jewel.

I call that a worthwhile diversion.

I turned around here, I’m sure there would have been more just over this hill.

Someday I’m going to have to visit Kentucky instead of just travel through it.

And then there’s Tennessee…

I always enjoy this sculpture at the Tennessee welcome center just across the state line from Kentucky.

… which thankfully is a narrow state if you’re traveling north or south. So I could feel like I was finally there when I got to the Huntsville Alabama welcome center.

Celebrating Alabama’s contribution to space exploration.

Of course it was a false sense of being home. I still had four hours of driving to go.

Welcome home, ya’ll.

By the time I made it all the way to the house it was dark, so no views of my lake. But I knew it was out there, and that was all that mattered.

I had a great trip down, and for those of you wondering where Katie is on this grand adventure, well, she is having some dad time at home. I thought about bringing her, she hasn’t had an adventure in a long time, but mama needs to get some sleep and Katie is a persistent little girl who has decided she wants her breakfast somewhere between 2:30 and 4:00 a.m. Every single day.

All I have to say is good luck daddy!

Remember you can make any image bigger just by clicking on it. I’ll see what I can find pretty down here, it’s raining this morning, but it’s not snow, so that’s a win in my book.

Talk later, as my girl says, time for mama to take a nap.

Edit: I thought that grey barn felt familiar. Turns out 2 of the three I found on that road this trip were featured in a post I did in June of 2018 on my way down to Alabama!

January 16, 2021
by dawnkinster 44 Comments

Escape to the lake side

Here it is Saturday already, and I’ve inadvertently left you hanging on my last two posts. Wednesday many of you wanted to know, “What IS that?”

What??

and in the post before that you wondered where I went on my little mini adventure.

From a crispy but beautiful morning.

Both posts were related to the same adventure I was inspired to take last weekend, on our one completely sunny day so far this year. After so much rain, snow and dark skies I eagerly set out early Saturday morning anticipating bright blue skies and endless sun, looking for something magnificent to photograph.

But, as those of you who have been reading know, I got tangled up in beautiful frost before I made it more than a couple miles away from the house. Not a bad thing, you understand, but it certainly slowed me down.

So nice to see sunlight!

My first stop was Katie’s park right in my own town, where the tall grasses were shining. The Wordless Wednesday post was in the parking lot there, a car had driven over the unplowed lot, probably the day before, and then deer had crossed that track. In the early morning light what was concave appeared to be convex and I couldn’t resist capturing the image.

As to where I went next? Well, I had no destination in mind, and even though the sky was bright blue and there was still a little snow on the ground, as I drove nothing in particular caught my eye. So I kept going.

Surely I can find pretty stuff on a day like this!

Eventually I found myself half way to my favorite lake, so I went for it and headed for Warren Dunes State Park, someplace I’ve always wanted to visit.

I’ve always liked images of sand and snow. Blue sky doesn’t hurt either.

It’s down near the Michigan/Indiana border, quite near Chicago. I didn’t know what to expect, but the first sight of the giant dune sure made me smile.

It’s a long way to the top.

I watched families as they trudged up the dune or ran back down. Everyone was having a lot of fun on a chilly but sunny Saturday afternoon.

A long line of trees led to the water.

Of course I couldn’t be at Lake Michigan and not walk on the beach, even though the sun was beginning to descend and the shadows were growing longer.

Pretty patterns.

So I headed down the beach, just for a bit, so that I could say hello to my lake. There weren’t many people out there, the wind was picking up and my fingers were chilled. But I know there’s always something pretty to photograph when you’re walking on a Great Lakes beach.

A chilly afternoon on a beautiful beach.

And of course there was.

Ripples in the sand, driftwood, and the brilliant sky.

Soon enough, though, I knew I should head for home. I hadn’t seen the St. Joseph lighthouse, something I really hoped I would have time for, but it was 30 minutes further south, the wrong direction. I checked to see what lighthouses might be north of me and found one near Saugatuck, not so far away. I put it in my phone and headed out.

Not real, but still pretty.

Turns out it was a replica of a lighthouse, tiny, being used for educational purposes. But it was still photogenic. As was the giant tug boat moored next to it.

All prettied up in festive holiday colors.

It wasn’t what I was hoping for, but what the heck, it was still an adventure, so after a couple shots I headed toward where I thought the freeway to home should be.

I was wrong, and ended up lost in Holland, which turns out to have several murals painted on the sides of it’s downtown businesses. I only stopped for one, because it had a parking lot where I could park and get my bearings, study the map, and set a true course for home.

One mural in Holland, there were more.

Early that morning I set out to find some barns, always a goal of mine on any adventure. I didn’t find any on the way over to the lake, not because they weren’t there, I suppose, but because my heart needed something more.

The last light of day made the barns glow.

Satisfied by a visit to my lake, I found several, all red, on my trip back home.

Worth stopping for.

Since last Saturday we haven’t had another day that was all sunny. No bright blue sky, no warming rays.

Just waiting for me to find it.

But I know we will again someday. And I hope, when the sun shines, I’ll be off on another adventure.

There’s always my lake.

You just never know where or when.

Every sunset promises a new tomorrow.

December 21, 2020
by dawnkinster 48 Comments

Comfort music

Christmas is right around the corner, and people are talking about how they’re not ready, have so much more to do, cooking, shopping, wrapping. I smile in sympathy but I don’t really get it. Especially this year.

This barn and other outbuildings are on land that is for sale, zoned commercial. So it won’t be here for much longer. I’m glad I got an image to preserve it.

Even without covid my family is small and doesn’t travel that much. We don’t do so much for Christmas anymore, though Thanksgiving is a big deal. I mailed the couple of boxes I needed to more than a week ago. I bought the ingredients for our simple Christmas supper last week.

The barns on this particular barn hunt came in many colors.

The thing I’m looking forward to most is a Christmas nap. I wonder if that shows my age? Still, it can get a little sad when the world seems hyped up and you aren’t. So yesterday I decided to go out looking for a few barns. Sort of a comfort photo hunt of sorts.

Not something you see every day, a blue barn.

And along the way I listened to XM radio, station 73, Traditional Holiday, humming along to music that my folks would have listened to back in the 50s, and some that we listed to in the 60s and 70s too.

I liked the red tractor in front of this red barn. I turned around to get it.

I remember my mom commenting that she wished they played Christmas music for awhile after the big day because she didn’t have time before it to listen. I feel lucky that I have all the time in the world to enjoy these oldies.

I want to go back when the light is better and see if I can figure out what was painted on this barn.

People like Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Mel Torme, Dean Martin, Nat King Cole, Eartha Kitt, Perry Como, Bing Crosby, Peggy Lee, Rosemary Clooney and Jo Stafford, groups like The Four Seasons and The Supremes, instrumentals from the likes of The London Pops, Percy Faith and Oscar Peterson.

It was a gray and rainy day. This farm seemed to sit so naturally in the landscape.

I heard so many pieces that we’ve played at our own holiday concerts, and I could imagine, and remember what it felt like to play again. The music did what music is intended to do, lifted my spirts and I arrived home after a couple of hours of Christmas music and barns smiling.

My favorite capture. A photogenic green barn!

I hope you are all smiling too, no matter what your holidays will look like. Here’s to spending time together, in person if it’s safe, virtually if it’s not. And here’s to looking forward to 2021. May it bring us all more smiles than frowns.

Classic

Change Is Hard

…but change is certain.

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