No Excuses for Me...

I’m really offering no excuses for being bad about blogging lately.  Except that it seems to me although we no longer have kids in school and we are both retired, this time of year just gets busier for us.  For one thing, the church we attend, The Brookfield Unitarian Universalist Church, goes back to regular services after Labor Day after a semi-hiatus during the summer.  For me, it’s a complete hiatus because the summer services are an hour earlier and I can’t seem to make it to them except on very rare occasions.  But with on top of that come committee meetings, the book club meetings, a website to maintain and lots of autumn brightness to photograph.  Still, I have plenty of free time so any excuse from me is pretty lame.

At this rate, though we’ve been home from our trip to the Canadian Maritimes for almost a month, I still have lots of photos to post and to go through.  Soooooo…I am going to post a few from our drive into Nova Scotia and along the Cabot Trail.

Nova Scotia is very different from Prince Edward Island.  It’s isn’t red, for one thing, and it has a more dramatic and rugged terrain.  It’s beautiful!  And it’s a place I’m hoping to get back to one of these days.

Looking back on where we've been.

The Orangedale Presbyterian Church...rather charming, I think.

I seem to have found Old MacDonald's farm.

Good simple fences...

Dropping in on The Run*A*Round Ranch's Good Fences today.  Here are a few I managed to catch this past week.

Here's a simple country fence.  I'm not sure what it's keeping in or out.

This one seems to know what it's meant for.

And you don't see this everyday.  It serves to keep the dogs safe from escaping out the window, but it does nothing for the noise control.  Cute little buggers, aren't they?

The things you see along the way…

I mentioned yesterday that I took a daycation on Friday out to see my daughter Carrie who lives in Northampton, Massachusetts.  Our intention was to view an art exhibit at the Smith College Art Museum.  But when we got down to Smith, we saw that it was not a good idea because it was Alumnae Weekend and there were many, many Smithies around and no parking spaces.  

It was a pretty crappy day weatherwise, but we decided to take a nice leisurely drive in the country anyway and to end up at Whole Foods in Hadley – a real treat for me.   After all Whole Foods is sort of like a food museum, isn’t it?  So it wasn't too far off our original intention.

Well, here are a few things we saw along the way…

We ended up on a road that lead to a wildlife sanctuary, the name of which we never caught.  We were  alone out there on the dirt road when Carrie said, “What’s that in that tree?”  At first I thought it was a bird nest, but as we got closer, we saw that it was this grumpy looking being that didn’t look too happy that we woke him up:

That part of Massachusetts is full of beautiful old barns.  Here’s one of them.

Before we stopped at Whole Foods, we stopped for a dish of asparagus ice cream at Flayvors of Cook Farm in Hadley, Massachusetts.  I wish I lived closer to this place as they sell organic vegetables and humanely raised meats and raw milk.  I am not sure that I would drink raw milk but I have a good friend who swears by it.  The regulations on raw milk are pretty strict in Massachusetts but it is not illegal as it is in some states.  It is controversial to be sure.

After I dropped Carrie off and said good-bye, I was sitting in traffic when I spied this bumper sticker.  It made me chuckle out loud and I, of course, got my camera out.  Around here, you see a lot of “Ilovermont” bumper stickers, but this is the first variation of the bumper sticker I’ve ever seen, I think.

Then I headed for home.  By the way, I love Vermont!

Scavenger Hunt Sunday...

Another Sunday...another Scavenger Hunt.  Here are the prompts:

  Glow, Old, Shadow, Spring and Smile.  And here's what I came up with.

On my way home from the grocery the other day, I noticed that the pond was nice and flat and the sun was in an interesting spot.  I had to stop.  Here is Blueberry Island with a nice GLOW.

What's better than an OLD barn?   Nothing!

A ride out in the country this time of year reveals lots of tree SHADOWS.

There isn't a whole lot of stuff springing out around here yet but Carrie and I came across this nice row of willow trees the other day.  I love how they turn gold in the SPRING.

Question of the day:  Do Bearded Dragons SMILE?  I think they do.

LINKING TO ASHLEY SISK'S SCAVENGER HUNT SUNDAY!

This Vehicle Stops for Barns...

Yesterday, for some reason, I was determined to get a photo of a barn in East Brookfield that I really love and pass on my way to and from church.  I didn't remember to stop on the way to church, so I had to do it on the way home.  Turns out, I had to go around the "block" three times in order to ditch the cars that were following me.  I'm surprised that the people across the street from this barn didn't call the police thinking I was some kind of stalker or something.  Even with three chances, I didn't get a really good shot off because, lo and behold, third time around, there was a car coming up pretty quickly in the distance.  I thought I could do this all day and never be free of traffic so I went with what I managed to get.  Here it is:

Later on, I was looking through my Facebook page and saw the following photo on "FotoBridge" one of the photography pages I like on there:

I found the discussion about this window sticker pretty interesting.  Instead of finding the humor in it, most people fretted that it would give away that the person in this car has a car full of expensive camera equipment and doesn't mind advertising it for all the thieves to see.  I guess I can see the point.  I don't generally leave my camera in the car but I guess if I did, I wouldn't want this sticker to advertise the fact that I do.  Still...this could have come in handy for me yesterday when I was trying to get a decent photo of that darn barn.

LINKING TO BLUFF AREA DAILY'S BARN CHARM.

Barn along the Blue Ridge Parkway...

Linking to Bluff Area Daily's Barn Charm.

Tired old barn...

I pass this patched up beauty now and then.  I was glad that no one was behind me on the road the day I took this pic.

Linking to Bluff Area Daily's Barn Charm.

Hadley barn…

The other day when the kids and I were trying to go to Skinner Mountain, we ended up having an ice cream at an ice cream stand instead.  Across the street from the ice cream stand was this nice tobacco barn.  So the trip wasn’t a complete waste after all.

LINKING TO BLUFF AREA DAILY'S BARN CHARM.

A tobacco barn…

Before we moved to these parts, I always thought of tobacco as a crop grown in the southern United States.  Therefore, it was a surprise to me when I found out that the long narrow windowless barns that are seen near Bradley (Hartford, Connecticut) Airport are tobacco barns.  Apparently, there are quite a few farms in the Connecticut River Valley that grow and dry tobacco that is used in cigar wrapping. 

I have been on the lookout for a good one to photograph for some time now.  And yesterday on our way home from a holiday cook out, Greg and I hit the jackpot.  Here are some pictures of this very interesting barn we found near Northampton, Massachusetts.  Believe me, I am no fan of tobacco and tobacco related products, but I find these barns quite beautiful and endlessly fascinating.

LINKING TO BLUFF AREA DAILY'S BARN CHARM.

Barn in Griswold, CT…

I’m posting a photo of a barn I took in Griswold, Connecticut, when Greg and I went down to check out the sunflowers.  The barn is beautiful and all but the sunflowers were spectacular so I am going to post another pic of the sunflowers.  After all, who doesn’t love sunflowers?

Here's the same picture in color.  This is the one I'm using on my Facebook page right now.  I like this particular picture better in black and white though.

Linking to Bluff Area Daily’s Barn Charm.

Drive by shootings: Dual purpose barn…

I’ve seen many barns with advertisements on them.  But I’m not sure I’ve ever seen one advertising an indoor water park.  This one is somewhere near Erie, Pennsylvania.

Linking to Bluff Area Daily's Barn Charm.

Grey barns…

Here are a couple more of the barns Carrie and I saw on our trip out to western Massachusetts…

Linking to Bluff Area Daily's BARN CHARM.

Yellow barn…

I’ve been feeling completely uninspired lately.  So to help me out of my funk, I went out to visit my daughter Carrie and we went for a ride out in the country in Western Massachusetts.  On our ride, we came across this gorgeous yellow barn on a back road.

  Riding the back roads in the country is a sure way to get inspiration.

"1900 Clesson Valley Farm"

Linking to Bluff Area Daily's Barn Charm.

Drive-by shootings: A study in contrasts…

Here are a couple of barns I shot last month while driving through Ohio.  Obviously one has seen better days and the other is in pretty good shape.

Linking to Bluff Area Daily’s Barn Charm.

Late Entry Barns…

I got carried away watching Prince Fielder win the Home Run Derby tonight and forgot all about adding my barns to Barn Charm.  But it’s not too late so here they are.  Some more of the barns I picked up on our recent trip to Ohio.  Sleep tight, you all!

Linking to Bluff Area Daily's BARN CHARM.