A Day to Wander

55°f/13°C, overcast after a night of heavy rain.  Our little creek is roaring, water is puddled all over our sloped yard, the ground completely saturated. As I write, a bit of blue is showing in the west, so it may clear up today. 

Seen in through the window of Taylor Books in downtown Charleston,  WV. Pretty cool name for a construction company. 

Yesterday was a road-tripping kind of day, but it didn't really start out that way. Our intention was to drive down to Charleston's Farmers Market to search for some plants I want---black tomatoes, no-heat jalapeños, and celery. All three are favorites of ours, and we didn't find a single one. So disappointing! But what I get for not starting my own plants this year.

Still, we had a good time wandering around the market and talking to growers, going inside to check out the wine sampling and other great stuff, and Larry bought an assortment of what used to be penny candy---root beer barrels, Mary Janes, Tootsie Rolls, and my favorite sesame seed-honey candy.

We left there and stopped at Taylor Books, an independent bookstore, for good coffee and a small lunch. Beef, bean and mushroom soup for Larry and chicken salad for me. Yum. I used the leaf of lettuce as a wrap.

Outside of another restaurant,  a group of waitresses posed for a photographer.  It was Derby Day! So they all had hats. We were too far away for a good photo,

but I found this one on the Adelphia Sports Bar and Grille's Facebook page.

While eating lunch we decided to drive over to the Darrell Norris greenhouse in Ohio where I had gone last week, to get some plants for my (numerous) flowerpots, and more herbs for the block planters in the herb garden. It wasn't too far out of our way, and since we were already on the road...Larry is a good sport!

We arrived there after 4pm, and it was clear that they were winding down from a busy day. There was a food truck, even. And a funky little place to rest!

Across the road, a line of trucks were being loaded for transport to markets. There are two greenhouse companies here, across the road from each other, and both are big operations. 

Plenty of enticing displays inside.

So much to choose from!

Once again my wallet was depleted when we left, and I have plenty to do to get everything planted.

When we left there we took a different way home, which can be translated into "we got lost".  A lady at the greenhouse told us how to go, but evidently we made a wrong turn or two and ended up making a b-i-g circle! But it was interesting to drive these back roads through an area that apparently is slowly being abandoned, with many homes grown over with vines and trees. Southeastern Ohio is part of Appalachia, with rolling hills and little industry to keep people in the area. There are, however, many churches. This one is still in use.

You can barely see the old brick chimney hidden in the trees.

This building is actually in a small park and was renovated. I believe it was an old mill.

This church was abandoned. 

A former store, now being used as storage apparently.  As you can see it was spitting rain, so I apologize for the rain drops on the windshield.

Another church, no longer in use.

And another former store.

Churches, churches. At least there seemed to be more of them than bars! A good thing, I suppose?

In Antiquity, Ohio, where there is little else but the church.

So many abandoned homes. Often there were a half dozen vehicles, campers, even tractors left behind in the yards. It puzzles me because these things have some value, if only for scrap, so why just leave them to rot away? Ar least this tractor and camper appear to be cared for, but the truck, not so much.

This is just one of many empty houses we saw. Perhaps it wasn't the best home, but with good flat land and a good road, it seems the property could be sold. It may be that these homes are tied up in heirship, a thorny web to untangle usually.

We saw acres of land already planted with tomatoes and peppers,

and other fields lying fallow, perhaps having a year's rest. These are all along the banks of the Ohio, very fertile ground, and also a place where Native American artifacts are often found.

A sign of the future for this valley? A huge solar installation is covering many acres here that formerly were produce fields, growing tomatoes, peppers, cabbage, broccoli,  corn and other truck crops. This installation will provide all the electricity for the new lithium battery plant being built on the West Virginia side of the river.

And finally, over the river to home!

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Road trip: Meigs County Barns, Farms and A Little More

A few more photos from our little road trip last week. There is of course much more to Meigs county than my photos will show. The old towns of Middleport (named, I heard, because it is midway between Pittsburgh and Cairo Illinois, or perhaps midway along the Ohio stretch of the Ohio river, take your pick) and Pomeroy were not on our path because we visit those places pretty often. You can see more about Pomeroy here and here. 

This was a trip to explore Meigs back roads, and here is some of what we saw:

Little white houses...they dotted the countryside. Most were very well maintained.

And a random boat, miles from any river.

We were surprised to see Amish buggies here.

We turned back homeward at Albany, OH. The old downtown seems to be dying here, as businesses move toward the newer four-lane highway that skirts the edge of town.

I loved this house. 

We hope to take another trip this week. Where will we go? Who knows? The joy was in the rambling, just turning here and there to see what we found. This was a fun day, and we took home some good memories that I posted on Facebook:

The guy we passed on the highway on his small motorcycle, helmet on but no facemask. His grimace was fierce as his two clashing plaid shirts blew in the wind, and a trail of traffic followed his slow, steady pace.

The girl at the thrift shop who is in college now, but used to work at the local bank. "We got robbed seven times," she said, "and after that last one I said, that's it I'm outta here."

The elderly man at the ice cream shop, bringing his own bowl so he could buy a bowl of ice cream for his dog while he himself ate a large chocolate cone. 

The owl, perched on a line in the middle of a hot day, watching us go by but not flying off.

The small country church named The Endtime House of Prayer. Maybe they know something we don't?

Stay cool, my friends.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

On the Back Way Home

Sometimes it's simple things like wild roadside grasses that catch my eye. I tarried along the way home last week to take pictures of the June grasses--I don't know the names of them but how pretty they are.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.