Windy Tour

Today dawned cloudy and a bit warmer. I hit the ground at 8:17 and bounded up the stairs, told my mother to get ready for a road trip to somewhere.. Where else did we decide to visit but... Wal-Mart! Oh, it was fun, though. We didn't really need groceries, so she bought some sacks of goodies that looked like fun to have for nibbles and company. I bought craft stuff and bargain things, spray Kilz for summer projects, and MY issue of Romantic Country! Had to have this issue because it has Cindy's blog featured from My Romantic Home. Such an awesome blogger. She's on my side bar if you haven't peeked at her blog.

Then we drove to our favorite diner and split an order of their wonderful, crunch-coated onion rings and an order of stir fry chicken and vegetables. YUM!

We finished the day with a saunder through Amish Country, ten or fifteen miles of farmland, beautiful barns, sweet homes, wonderful animals. Of course, everyone was out working: women hanging billowing lines full of black, dark blue, and snowy white, and the men in the muddy barn lots and greening fields.

March winds tore at the clothes on the lines, puffing each shirt and baby smock along the wire. Here and there we saw baby calves having that "the weather's changing" kind of frolic only known to baby animals on the farm. Some colts strutted around the paddocks while wind-whipped Amish boys minus their straw hats ( I suppose it was just too windy?) tried to corral them. Our favorite sights were three teams of horses pulling plows and farm equipment. Out of respect I didn't take photographs of people (except I think one man might be in this one blurry one.) We saw a team of four Belgian draft horses breaking sod, and just as we were leaving Amish country we finally caught the view of the day: a huge team of six Belgians pulling one little man standing straight, proud, and kingly on his plow or harrow or whatever that might have been. Amish don't blog, but they sure know how to work the land and their lives.

I hadn't been through this section of Amish country since 1977 although it's only about thirty miles from here. So, I guess about 31 years have passed in my world, and maybe about five are visible to the "English" eye in theirs. Back then, I was donw with a stint of living in California with my first husband near his Navy base. I was on my way home from California via Greyhound bus-- could almost see the city limits of my last stop... Then my driver detoured through this Clark Amish land, stopping EVERYWHERE to pick up passengers. I remember "HATING" the village then because it had been a 56 hour bus ride with three bus changes. I was sooooo young, soooo lonely for family or someone to know...... so exasperated at the slow pace of the Amish horse drawn vehicles. Today's trip was much more fun. My mom had a good time, too. She's upstairs waiting for the last of her sacks from the car. I took a mini break to blog and have a moment.

My next goal: A cup of Earl Grey tea and my new issue of Fabulous Fifi's Romantic Country... I don't think either will disappoint me! Have a good day. Tomorrow is another day back at school... It will be fun to see what everyone did over the break. Hugs!