The Barn Across the Hill
Foggy Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia
Archive for the ‘Barns’ Category
Virginia Land Mass
Posted in Awesome Fotos, Barns, Country Fotos, Country Sights, Photography, The Land, Travel in Virginia, tagged Barns, country photos, country views, farms, fencelines, Fields, Landscapes, photography, rural Virginia, Virginia on June 8, 2017| 14 Comments »
Virginia Stripes
Posted in Awesome Fotos, Barns, Buildings, Country Fotos, Country Sights, Country Thoughts, Drive-By-Photography, Farms, Random Impressions, The Land, Uncategorized, Virginia, Virginia Views, tagged art in nature, country living, cultivation, farmland, photography, rural Virginia, the land, Virginia, Virginia Farms on April 30, 2016| 17 Comments »
There are the Commonwealth’s farmlands, cultivated with a farmer-artist’s brush, creating stripes of color along Virginia highways and byways.
Discoveries Down a Country Road
Posted in Awesome Fotos, Barns, Buildings, Camera-Walking, Country Fotos, Country Sights, Farms, Fences, Friends, Photography, Random Impressions, Uncategorized, Virginia, Virginia Views, tagged Barns, country living, country views, farm scenes, fencelines, history, old buildings, photography, rural Virginia, Shenandoah Valley, the land, Virginia Sights on April 10, 2016| 18 Comments »
I am told this picturesque Virginia barn was built in 1885.
It was and is still well used
and belongs to my friends “down the road.”
A Virginia Barn Revealed
Posted in Awesome Fotos, Barns, Camera-Walking, Country Fotos, Country Sights, February Perspectives, Fences, Photography, The Land, Uncategorized, Virginia, Virginia Views, tagged Barn photo, Barns, country photo, fenceline, Fences, perspectives, photography, poetry, Virginia View on March 1, 2016| 23 Comments »
A Virginia Barn in the Shenandoah Valley
There is a big white barn I can see from home
but can never get quite the right angle
or the trees are in leaf
and the barn disappears
lost and entwined in a tangle.
Then winter clears the brush and trees,
continuing each season’s story,
and there it is, the big white barn,
revealed in a world of faded glory.
Nature’s Watercolor Painting
Posted in Art, Awesome Fotos, Barns, Blogging Inspiration, Camera-Walking, Country Fotos, Mountains, Photography, Seasons, The Land, Trees, View Points, Virginia, Virginia Views, tagged Art, Autumn, country photo, landscape, mountains, nature, pastel painting, photography, Seasons, trees, Views, Virginia View, watercolor effects on October 29, 2015| 21 Comments »
Photo by Dor
Sometimes there are surprises hidden in my camera.
This pastel painting magically appeared.
It is this afternoon’s Virginia View from my deck
at the end of a gentle rain.
Why I Love Virginia
Posted in Awesome Fotos, Barns, Buildings, Country Fotos, Country Sights, Drive-By-Photography, Farms, Fences, Photography, The Land, Travel in Virginia, Virginia, Virginia Views, tagged A Virginia View, Barns, country photo, country sights, country view, farms, landscape, photography, Shenandoah Valley, the land, Travel in Virginia, Virginia on September 23, 2015| 9 Comments »
Making Progress
Posted in Barns, Buildings, Camera-Walking, Country Sights, Random Impressions, Signs of the Times, The Good Old Days, tagged Buildings, change, country life, Country thoughts, dairy barn, old barns, old buildings, photography, Signs of the Times, the land, yesterday on June 4, 2015| 13 Comments »
Some things make me sad. This was once a prosperous dairy in a rural part of my county. Now it stands as a monument to simpler times and natural spaces. But, “that’s progress,” or is it?
A Sunday Drive
Posted in Awesome Fotos, Barns, Country Adventures, Country Fotos, History and Places, Photography, The Land, Travel in Virginia, Where to Go, tagged country drive, Cyrus McCormick, McCormick Farm, rural views, Shenandoah Valley, Sunday Drive, The Virginia Reaper on May 26, 2014| 43 Comments »
Bill and I went for a Sunday Drive this morning to the McCormick Farm in Raphine, Virginia. The drive itself was filled with “photo ops” down quiet country roads. Expansive views came at us from all angles, barns and livestock and mountain vistas. Yes, we had been on these roads before but they are ever breathtaking.
McCormick Farm and Gristmill
Our destination was the McCormick Farm, home of Cyrus McCormick who invented the first mechanical reaper in 1834 when he was 22 years old! This may not sound like an earth shaking invention, but he literally opened a new era in agriculture “and an age of mechanization that not only changed life on the farm, but also made it possible for millions of people to leave their rural roots and enter a more industrialized society.” (from the farm brochure).
Sweeping Vistas
and Barns En Route
What a great surprise to find we were the only tourists there (well, almost). There was a democratic gathering of ducks sleeping on the banks of a stream. I say, “democratic” because each duck was of a different breed or ilk than the other and no two alike, yet they appeared to be snoozing in harmony and took no notice of us intruders. That is, until Bill and I headed for the picnic tree and decided to have lunch before exploring the farm. Suddenly the duck contingent began heated discussion and waddled over in a line. They remained highly vocal as we all shared sandwiches and discussed politics.
History Lesson (Skip This if You Think The Reaper is Boring)
Cyrus McCormick patented his horse drawn reaper and soon he was unable to produce enough of the machines at his farm’s blacksmith shop (the shop can still be visited by us tourists and ducks). So he went to Chicago (Cyrus did) and started a factory in 1847 to serve the Midwest.
The reaper and other farm machines developed by the McCormick Company and its subsequent companies (International Harvester for one), vastly reduced the number of people required to produce food and fiber. The results were that our society was freed from the soil and people were able to turn their energies toward industry, science and the arts around the world.
The 634 acre McCormick Farm is now known as the Shenandoah Valley Agricultural Research and Extension Center, which is now part of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University known as Virginia Tech. Agricultural research continues in the areas of animal science, plant science, agronomy, forestry, and other disciplines.
The Little White Barn
Posted in Barns, Camera-Walking, Country Fotos, Drive-By-Photography, Photography, Poetry, The Land, tagged Barns, Country Fotos, country living, photography, poetry, rural Virginia, Shenandoah Valley, the land, Virginia on April 26, 2014| 22 Comments »
All manner of creatures munch critter-salads
in that field,
living in harmony upon a giving land
that was seeded by a loving hand.
But the little white barn is shelter
from harsh winds and stinging cold
and offers safety, unaware
of creeping disrepair
and like a devoted mother she waits and calls,
“Come home.”
Virginia Views 