OCTOBER AFTERNOON VACATION

I had the opportunity this afternoon to drive to the northern part of beautiful Bucks County. It was a bright and cool day, perfect for taking off on a road trip. I had Hannah and my camera with me, in anticipation of being able to do some photography.

As soon as I was able, I ducked off the main highway to the back roads. I did not care if I got lost. I knew if I kept going, I would eventually come out to a familiar place. There's something very rejuvenating for me being off the main thoroughfare, moseying along the back roads at my own pace and meeting very few other cars. It made it possible for me to stop frequently when I saw something I wanted to photograph.

I thought this building was interesting, and I wondered if it had once been a schoolhouse? The color and contrast came out very poorly, so I decided to turn it into a black and white photo to salvage it. I was happy enough with the results to share it.

I slammed on the brakes when I saw this old barn and tractor. It reminds me of the barns that were so common in the country around Shippensburg, where I grew up.

I walked up and took a rear shot of the tractor under the barn overhang. This was another photo that is better as a black and white image than color. Black and white symbolizes the simplicity of farm life. Photographs in the mid 20th century were predominantly black and white, so I felt it heightened the impact of the image. I really like the contrast too.

Hannah and I stopped at the Bucks County Horse Park in Revere. Riders were participating in a "Spook-a-rama Trail Ride." Horses and riders follow a set trail where they encounter many spooky obstacles. Anyone who knows horses is aware that they are creatures of flight and have a natural inclination to be spooky when seeing strange, unfamiliar things. It's a fun outing for riders, and they receive extra points if they came in costume. I love this grey horse made up to look like a zebra. I wonder what his owner used to make the black stripes? It must have taken HOURS! I imagine other horses spooked at him!

After grabbing a light bite to eat at the horse park and letting Hannah out for some sniffing and a run, we headed again into the back-roads wilderness of Tinicum. Just off Rt. 611 we encountered this beautiful waterfall. Off to the left was a lovely home. I would be the luckiest person alive if I could live in this environment.

Tinicum is very rocky, and stone walls are common. This scene reminded me of Robert Frost's poem "Mending Wall." Here it is for those of you who may not be familiar with it. And if you are, it is always worth re-reading.

Something there is that doesn't love a wall,

That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,

And spills the upper boulders in the sun,

And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.

The work of hunters is another thing:

I have come after them and made repair

Where they have left not one stone on a stone,

But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,

To please the yelping dogs.

The gaps I mean,

No one has seen them made or heard them made,

But at spring mending-time we find them there.

I let my neighbor know beyond the hill;

And on a day we meet to walk the line

And set the wall between us once again.

We keep the wall between us as we go.

To each the boulders that have fallen to each.

And some are loaves and some so nearly balls

We have to use a spell to make them balance:

'Stay where you are until our backs are turned!'

We wear our fingers rough with handling them.

Oh, just another kind of out-door game,

One on a side. It comes to little more:

There where it is we do not need the wall:

He is all pine and I am apple orchard.

My apple trees will never get across

And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.

He only says, 'Good fences make good neighbors'.

Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder

If I could put a notion in his head:

'Why do they make good neighbors?

Isn't it Where there are cows?

But here there are no cows.

Before I built a wall I'd ask to know

What I was walling in or walling out,

And to whom I was like to give offence.

Something there is that doesn't love a wall,

That wants it down.' I could say 'Elves' to him,

But it's not elves exactly, and I'd rather

He said it for himself. I see him there

Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top

In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.

He moves in darkness as it seems to me~

Not of woods only and the shade of trees.

He will not go behind his father's saying,

And he likes having thought of it so well

He says again,

"Good fences make good neighbors."

This chapel intrigued me -- non-denominational -- for hire -- built in 1847. I should have peeked in the windows.

These huge glacial boulders deserved to be studied. I would absolutely love to see this scene after a snowfall -- but frankly, I meandered so many back roads, I do not think I could relocate it!

This had to be the most awe-inspiring sight of my drive this afternoon. There was a sign by the bridge noting the exceptional quality of the water. These creeks are spring fed and eventually feed into the Tinicum Creek. The boulders were amazing. Instead of just being plain grey stones, they were mottled with white and moss. The water was rushing through the chanels, and the fall color added to the scene. I felt like I was in the mountains, not Bucks County.

This is the same creek looking downstream.