That time of year again....

It is that time of year again...though this photo is not from this year, we have been seeing big old tractors out and about and some fields have had the ground stirred up a bit. 

A repeat/repost

I am too tired and lazy tonight to decide what to post...and since a lot of us always talk about what if the walls could talk...I am sharing this bit of imagination I did several years ago on my other blog.  So here you go:

Look at Me

Look at me. I mean really look at me. I know I am not much too look at now but at one time I was the answer to prayers. I was loved. Someone once saved and scrimped to have me, and was so happy when they could finally claim me as their own. I was one of the high points of their life. They worked and did all kinds of stuff just to have me. They planted flowers and bushes for beauty to surround me.

I had a family….I heard the laughter of the children along with their quiet talks with mom and dad. I heard the children playing on my porch and in the yard. They had a swing in the old oak tree that used to stand out to the side here. They caught lightening bugs in the dusk of summer evenings…finally, after growing tired they would settle on my front porch to plan for another day.

I was home to them...I kept them warm in the winter and sheltered them from the storms of summer. I was the place they took refuge in when life got hard. I saw them through the Great Depression, I was here when the son came home from WWII. I saw one daughter sneak her first kiss in the swing on my front porch. Another left here to be the first to go to college.

 Meals were cooked in my kitchen, Thanksgiving and Christmases were celebrated, friends came and went. I was at the center of their life. My living room was a welcoming friend at the end of a long day's work. I was the holder of their dreams.

What led from then to now, happened so gradually I was hardly aware of it happening…the children grew up and married and had homes of their own…after several years the dad died, and not too long after that the mom passed….you can sort of imagine the rest. I was going through my own grieving and was hardly aware of time passing.

Now I am in this state and an eyesore to some, while a few others look at me and wonder what tales I could tell if I could talk.
*********
Some of you have read this--I hope you don't mind the repeat. 

Lonely turtle

The above is from last night's drive through the strip pit area....

This one is from the 21st...one week before.  I think it must be lonely.  It is the only one I have seen out there.  Though maybe they are actually two different turtles.

This Old House

This is an old home we pass at least two or three times a year...it is on one of my favorite drives.

I paused to take a few pics of it yesterday.

I would love to peek inside but I just somehow never feel right trespassing, even if I don't plan to do any harm.

Mute Swans....

I think the above is the male...

And this is his little lady.  We were up near Danville, Illinois at the Heron Viewing park.  The water was really up...and the only things close enough for photos were these two swans and a pair of Canadian Geese.

The boardwalk goes out over the water forming a sort of circle.  To begin with the swans were on the outside of the east side of the circle and the geese were in the water in the enclosed part of the circle.  The top swan first chased them to the outside of the west side of the circle.  But it kept swimming right beside the boardwalk...after about five or ten minutes, it took off after them and chased them clear across the wetlands.  You should have heard the noise...partly the flapping of the wings.  Neither the swan nor the geese flew over 3 or 4 feet above the water....then there was the squawking and carrying on.  It was something to witness and hear.

Hope you enjoyed these...I am linking to My Corner of the World....

Otto

Just showing some pics of Otto over the years...when he was younger.


 He was and still is so good natured....was a good playmate and a good shoulder to lean on.



I don't have any recent ones of him and Lorelei...he does like to just lay around a lot now...

Some of you have not heard the stories of how Sarah had him out in their front yard without his leash on while she was doing something with her car when the UPS came.  Otto quickly ran and got in the UPS truck cause he wanted to go for a ride.  She had to drag him off.

And along about that time, when Lorelei was young, the parents had to meet the bus to get their children off the bus.  Well, Lorelei got off on the other side of the street, so Sarah walked over with Otto on the leash.  When he heard all the kids, he tried to drag her on the bus to get to them.

In 2nd or 3rd grade, Lorelei had her mom bring him for Show-n-tell...so when they were walking down the hall and he heard the kids, again, he was about dragging Sarah to get to them.  Then when he went in, he just flopped down in the floor in front of them!   I don't know whether just content, or expecting to be petted.  

As you can see by these he is as patient with other animals, too.

.

Johnson County courthouse

A drive-by shot of Johnson County Courthouse here in Indiana.  Taken in 2011.

Old beauties....

I just thought I would go back and show a few more Tennessee pictures...

I remember stopping to take these last two and wondering about their history...

This house sat to the right of the barn above it....I feel sure they were once part of the same farm.  and probably still are.

Who loves you pretty baby....

This was taken a week or two ago...they were enjoying some sunshine.

How about a this?

I am still amazed to  have seen this peahen where we seen her.  We were really off the beaten path.  Much of the time would have had to hunt for a place to pass another car.

Strut your stuff....

The turkeys were back over in the cornfield about a mile west of us...just past the last house at the edge of town.

They were not seriously strutting...they were responding to me 'calling' to them.  I do not know how to describe what I was doing.  They just keep on pecking around and hunting for food till I started trying to different sounds to get a response.  And I finally found one that would make 3 or 4 of them puff out and fan out their tails.

Here is one looking for the idiot making the strange call...

The sisters....

I call these two the sisters, but think of them as the twins.  but they are not quite.  The one has windows on the end plus the chimneys are different.  Notice the swing still on the porch of the nearest house?  Still, they are enough alike to make me think they were built by the same person.  And I wonder if they were for siblings.  Or maybe parents and child.

I would love to know their history, and know what families lived there.

These photos were taken in 2011...I wonder if the houses are still standing.

I think this barn belonged to the same farm.  This was the only shot I managed to get of it. 

An old Tennessee beauty...

Since I have not been getting out much, I have been going through the archives.  I thought I would start dipping into some Tennessee photos.

So here we have one barn...

I will be saying this a lot...almost all the photos were drive-bys.  Admittedly at a slow pace....most of the time there was no place to pull off.  And the roads were narrow with lots of curves.

A bend in the road

I did a double-take on the date this photo was taken...it looks like spring green to me, but was actually taken in October of 2010.  Nevertheless, a bend in the road always calls to me.  It always has...I can remember as a little girl wondering what was around the curve.

It's the details...

A farmhouse in Illinois...

Every time I have ever passed it, it always looks just like this.....not a thing out of place.

Everything always looks like it has just been painted,

even all the gingerbread trim.  (Can you imagine what a job that is to paint???) 

Do you see what I see????

Just asking.....

Wonder if it is still standing?

I know the area this is in, but would have to get on google earth to find it.  I would love to go see if it still survives.
 

Both of these photos were taken on the same drive, but I cannot think for the life of me where this one is.

The Boatless Oars Memorial Home

The Boatless Oars Memorial Home for Wayward stuffed animals.

A geocache...

These are from 2012...it has been a long time since I passed this way and I do not know if it is still there.

Next time I have a chance, I want to drive by that way and see if anything remains or if it has been replaced by new stuffed toys.

Mayapple, butterfly

I thought I would show the Mayapple plant in its entirety...it is not a real apple.  All parts of the plant are poisonous.  I thought I had heard it was poisonous, so looked it up and happened to find that it is also called American Mandrake or wild mandrake and ground lemon.  All my life, I  always heard it called Mayapple....
******************
Now for the real photograph of the day, this butterfly.

Both photos taken in 2012.

Mayapple blossom

Another plant commonly found in the eastern woods.  I also have some of these in my yard.  In a shady corner up against our house.  Our daughters dug up Mayapple roots, some Jack in the pulpit roots, and some trillium....and lets not forget Bluebells.  This blossom is from the wild, though.

From the archives

The color green is looking good right now!

Jack-in-the-pulpit!

I can't wait till it is warm enough to see some of these...I have some in my yard!