Funny how I used to get a happy little skip in my heart when I cleared the last set of hills while driving down to Alabama to visit my parents. And funny how today, as I cleared that last set of hills I felt a melancholy skip instead.
I arrived just before dark. Tomorrow, with sunshine, the space will feel happier.
I guess that’s normal.
It’s hard now, to come visit with the house empty but waiting patiently. It’s equally hard to leave after being here a few days. The memories smooth out and it just feels good to be here.
The crepe myrtle is in bloom. Made me smile.
But that first walk into the empty house….well…that’s hard. Every time.
I’ve been out of town for most of the last week. I, of course, took lots of images. But the main reason for the trip was to experience dark skies in South Dakota.
I’m lucky enough to have a friend from high school who lives on a farm away from city lights. For years we’ve talked about me going out there to see the stars.
My sister contemplating life on the prairie.
So last week it finally came together and my sister and I drove out there. We were so lucky that the skies were clear for all three nights that we were there. We spent a few hours each of two nights staring up at the sky with warm breezes keeping the bugs at bay.
I have 3 sets of night images to process, the barn, a tractor and the gate. But I need to learn how to stitch skies and foregrounds together in Photoshop. The learning of that will likely take me awhile.
Me letting her push the shutter.
For now I’ll share these single take images of my sister and me. When I learn how to process the rest of them I’ll share those as well.
We had a great time and want to thank our hosts so much for sharing their lives and their skies with us!
(PS: WordPress makes everything darker. I’ve used the lighter of my images but if it’s still dark, try looking at these in a darkened room on a bigger than your phone screen.)
Hey! It’s official! It’s time to stand up, step out, get going, and plan your walk or drive or skip or hop or swim or jog for this year’s Walktober!
These guys get overlooked all the time.
Take us somewhere that you love to go, or somewhere you’ve never been before. Tell us (and show us with pictures if you can) about it and why you’re happy you went, or why you’re disappointed in your chosen place. Do you think we should stop and visit it if we’re ever in the neighborhood?
Solo sunbathing.
Tell us all your hopes and dreams. OK…maybe that’s too much information, but tell us about your adventure, where it is and what it’s like, and then link it to this post.
Wood ducks
Early in November I’ll assemble a post with links to all of your posts, and then everyone can come along on your walk, hop, jump, skip…well….you get the idea.
Common yellowthroat. I waited a long time for him to come pose for me.
So let’s set the official Walktober dates, OK? Because if you’re like me you’ll let it go until the last minute or you’ll forget about it all together if there aren’t specific dates. Right? Right!
Mama deer taking a break from parenting. Her youngster is to the left behind the trees.
So how about our official Walktober kick off on October 1 (who will be our first entry?) and end by October 31? That gives us the entiremonth of October to get outside and enjoy ourselves. I hope you all have at least one perfect day.
A bluejay lets his friends know about the treats down below.
I have a concert to play on the 28th, and dog rally trials on the 24th and 31st, so I’m really busy at the end of the month. I better not wait to get my Walktober done!
Swans in morning light.
The pictures in this post, except the last one, are all from a walk I took a few weeks ago at my favorite bird park, Kensington, with an updated Nikon camera, focus set to latch onto birds eyes.I was pretty happy with it.
You just know he’s going for the peanut.
If you have questions about Walktober let me know. I’ll get back to you as quick as I can.
Meanwhile, Ms. Penny is giving serious consideration to where she would like to take you for her version of Walktober. She invites any other dogs (or cats or birds or lizards!) to go on a walk and tell us all about it too. She thinks hopping or skipping would be too hard and she doesn’t have a drivers license.
She says it’s not that difficult to hyjack your mom or dad’s blog.
This is one option, mom, but I’d like to take the folks somewhere more exotic.
She does it all the time. She says parents are so gullible.
I just don’t think it’s possible for me to travel cross country and not stop for a barn photo opportunity.
Even if it’s a drive I’ve made many times before there always seems to be something that looks pretty enough to warrent a detour from the freeway.
The question is, always, is there an exit nearby and can I find my way back to that beautiful barn without spending too much time searching?
And, once I get back there, will there be a place that’s safe for me to stop and snap a quick shot?
In reality I see many amazing farms while traveling on big interstates and they’re often not possible to find again. Usually there are miles and miles of interstate before the next exit, and no obvious roads back to what I saw.
But I remember them, and they make me smile, so even though I don’t get to keep them forever in my files, I get to enjoy them for a brief moment.
And that counts for someting too.
***Don’t forget to be thinking about where you’d like to take us on your version of our annual Walktober! Take a walk, or ride a bike, or hop, skip or run and take a few pictures to share with us. Post about it and link your post to my Official Walktober post (which I haven’t written yet but I will very soon!) and at the end of October, or maybe in early November, I’ll put them all together in one giant post for everyone to enjoy.***
On my way down Lookout Mountain I saw this. Of course I had to turn around and spend some time in awe.
As some of you have figured out I’m away from home. I took an opportunity to spend a few days with family down in Alabama.
I couldn’t resist stopping when the wheat was golden in the morning light.
And though I could have flown and made the trip South faster, I chose to drive, because I love to drive and I enjoy seeing whatever there is to see along the way.
And to find a wheat field AND a barn…well….of course I stopped!
This trip went easier than my last trip in November. The road didn’t seem so long, nor the traffic so busy. Not to say there weren’t the normal amounts of stress getting through Indianapolis and Nashville and especially Birmingham Alabama.
I appreciated the art of a farmer’s tracks through rolling fields of grain.
But Sunday morning as I left my hotel in Bowling Green Kentucky I noticed the wheat fields were ripening and the early light was making them glow.
I’m just a sucker for an old barn.
All day Saturday I hadn’t stopped for a single photo. I even managed to resist the exit I’ve been lured into by photogenic barns the last three times I’ve driven down.
I went around a big country block to get this one.
So I thought it was only fair that I take thirty minutes and find a barn or two in wheat fields.
Eventually, last Sunday, I made it here to one of my happy places.
I’ve been down at the lake for a couple of days now, but for all you barn lovers I’ll do a short post from my second day of driving south.
I saw a promising area, with rolling hills and what seemed like a lot of barns somewhere in Kentucky off of I 65. I pulled off at the exit and turned onto what looked like a service drive to head back and look for the barns.
Even as turned I began to feel faint bits of recognition. It felt like I’d been down this road before.
Then I started thinking, ‘if the road curves sharply to the left and then goes up a hill I’ve definitely been here before.
And it did.
Even funnier is that I think this is the third time I’ve been down this road, each time on the way to Alabama, and each time enticed by beautiful barns visible from the freeway.
This year, not having a dog with me, I went further down the road and found some ‘new’ barns — structures I hadn’t seen before.
And as the sky darkened with an oncoming storm, I saw in the distance a white church spire that I had to go find. So I did.
I wandered around the cemetery a bit, and shot some barns off in the distance. Then I high tailed it back to the freeway for the rest of my trip home.
I’m going to try very very hard next time I’m driving down to Alabama not to be seduced by this road and it’s barns again. I think three times is plenty.
Has anybody seen my mom? I can’t find her and she’s been missing for at least 3 days. Maybe more!
I’ve looked and looked in all her favorite places. You know, like in her bed, and on her sofa, and in her favorite chair and at the dinner table.
Maybe she’s lost in one of my parks! I’d drive over there to look but I don’t have a driver’s license!
I asked my dad, and he said not to worry, he says mom is fine, she’s just taking some “Penny-free time” for herself.
Penny-free?!?!?!
What the heck does that even mean?
Anyway dad said to tell you all not to worry, and that mom will get that Walktober collection post done as soon as she gets home. I figured you guys would want to know.
Meanwhile I’m going to sleep in her bed next to my dad every night. Maybe if I make her jealous she’ll come home to us.
I’m headed for a short visit with family down in Alabama. Which means I’m driving through farm land. Lots and lots of farm land. I’m beginning to think you could throw a dart at a map of the US Midwest and there’d be a great barn to photograph right there.
A rest stop floor.
Yep, everywhere I look I think, “I need to come back here, find a campground, and spend a couple days hunting barns.” Sort of like looking for places to shoot the Milky Way, but I’d get to be out with the camera in the daylight instead of tromping around in the dark.
Yesterday’s hotel carpet.
Just before I crossed from Michigan into Indiana I saw a barn out of the corner of my eye…and since there was an exit right there I took it.
These aren’t the barns I saw from the freeway, but they made me smile.
I never did find my way back to the barn that caught my attention, but I found this one.
Not the one I was looking for, but it is beautiful.
I thought it was beautiful, the white of the barn and the gold of the tree.
And, while going around the country block to find my way back to the freeway I found this one…
More a corn crib and a shed than a barn.
….and this one.
Used to match the tractor, I’m sure.
AND, my best find on that little side trip was this:
Just sitting in a field near the road.
I LOVE it. Old trucks rank right up there with old barns in my book.
And just so you can enjoy a little more fall color, this was at the last rest stop before I stopped for the night near Louisville KY.
There’s still lots of color down here.
Tomorrow I hope to get all the way to the lake. We’ll see. It will depend on whether I take any more barn hunting side trips.
What are the odds I make it all the way without straying?
Change Is Hard 