Up Front

Most of the older homes have porches--the gathering places up and down the tree-lined streets.  And yes, in the evenings people sit out on their porches and wave and talk to the neighbors who walk by.

 This little beauty only had a portico over the front door, but I couldn't resist the shape of the window over it and the trim along the roofline.  This house was built in 1881, and still stands strong and true to its original character.

 I love the stonework detail on this front door.  In fact, I love the entire house, which is a lovely Tudor.  It is right across the street from Lake Michigan, so they have wonderful sunset views every evening.  Lucky!!

Painted Lady detail

Ml and I decided to walk around Ludington one day...which is when we took the photos posted yesterday.  We wandered down the main drag, and in and out of the streets off of it.  We came past this beauty--lovingly restored and beautifully painted.  In the old carriage house the owner was having a garage sale.  ML and I went in to tell him how beautiful his house was.  Before we knew it, he was telling us how he bought the house when he retired, and worked at bringing it back to life.  He took us inside to show us his kitchen, complete with a working soda fountain, and how he had restored several of the rooms.  He showed us photos of the house when he bought it, and I commend him for his vision, and his hard work, because the house looked NOTHING like this at the time of purchase.  He was so friendly and proud of his home, and so eager to show us the house.  What a fun experience!  It was what ML called a "Mayberry RFD" moment.

 There are stained glass windows in the peaks of the house on either side.  He told us how he put lights behind them so they glow at night.  What a wonderful idea!!

 And this porch.....don't you just want to sit and rock?  I loved the fact that most of the porches we saw had rocking chairs on them.  There is something that just pairs the two together.

Painted Ladies

Ludington has a plethora of historic homes, many of which have been lovingly restored to their former glory, and are either private homes (lucky owners!) or open as B&Bs.

I used to live next door to this one, and I would sigh every time I went past.  All that wonderful ironwork trim is so lacy and light, and adds such a feminine touch to this stately old mansion.

 This one is on the main drag...and again, a lucky private home.  The owners have done an outstanding job of restoring the colors and painting the trim as it would've been painted in its heyday.

 This one is a little more subdued than those around it, but the owners have dolled it up a little with the swag.  I love the round window at the top of the turret.  Doesn't that look like the perfect place for a little girl's room?

 Another nicely restored beauty.  I like the fact that they kept the door the natural wood color, and have the lace curtain in the window.  The turret faces west, perfect for watching the sunsets.  That's where my bedroom would be.

 And of course, what would a Victorian porch be without hanging ferns?  This one just says "Come sit for a spell---unwind and cool off".

Of course, as gorgeous as these houses are, when I think of the amount of upkeep (both labor and money) and how much it costs to heat one of these beauties, I am content to live in a much more contemporary house.

Patchwork barns

On our barn prowls, I began to notice a theme---the ones that really caught my eye and made me pull over to the side of the road were the barns with fieldstone foundations.  I knew that each stone had in all probability been laboriously taken from the land as the farmer prepared it, and hauled to a pile which was used to build the base of his barn.  No worries about mice getting through these foundations, or having them rot out due to weather.  Like old patchwork quilts, the mix of color and texture in the stones was fascinating to me, but perhaps that as a quilter, and as a rock nut, I have an eye and appreciation for that.

I love the mix of textures with the stones and old weathered wood.  This barn had been restored, and they had even cleaned the foundation.

 Another barn, with the foundation and wood glowing in the sunlight...

 This barn had a wonderful little "get out of the weather" open-sided area for the horse.  When I saw the rock wall, I knew we would have to U-turn and capture it.

 Yep, it was worth the U-turn...  Looks at all the textures between the rocks, and the vertical and horizontal boards.  So cool!!

 Loved this barn with the age-darkened boards, the stone foundation, and the pop of red and cream around the windows. Someone has a good design sense.

 Another old barn...the farmer told us that the Amish came and helped him rebuild the foundation.  Would've loved to have seen that!

 And, a few close-ups of the wonderful variety of rocks in the foundation of just one of the barns.  This corner really caught my eye, because each large rock had been cut to form the corner angle.

 The mix of color and shape and visual textures in all of these rocks is wonderful.  I know the farmer wasn't thinking of that when he built the foundation--it was more of a choice of which stone fit which area, but I love the way they are put together, and the way the red-tones stones just pop.

barns redux

Remember the old song from the 60s that went "sign, sign, everywhere a sign..."?  Well, that's what the backroads were like for us, except it was "barns, barns, everywhere a barn", to our delight.

There were fancy white barns, some with one cupola

 and others with two, and adorable mama bear and baby bear outbuildings...

 There were barns where people were feeling patriotic...

 ...and red barns galore

 This one was even helpfully labelled in case we couldn't tell what color it was...

This barn has been restored and brought back to its former glory, and was one of the featured barns in the Barns and Byways tour in 2008.  It has been in the same family for generations, and the owner's son-in-law was kind enough to let us prowl the property.

I love the old gas pump out in front.  Even though it is no longer in use, it calls to mind days when the farmers had their own gas on hand.

 One side of the barn is lined with all these windows.  We were told that the original owner, who built the barn, felt that cows that could see out were happy cows, so each stall had a window at the end.  I don't know about the cows, but if I had a prime sunset view every night like these windows do, I would be one happy camper!!

 Oh, the stories this gas pump could tell....

 If I had to come up with a title for this one, it would be "Out To Pasture".  It evidently didn't make it to the gas pump on the other side of the barn.  Bet this old beauty has a lot of stories, too.

Barn Hunters

ML and I spent many happy hours prowling for barns on the backroads.  She is an avid barn hunter, and we were in Barn Heaven.  Go outside a town, travel in any direction, and you run into barns--new barns, old barn, maintained barns, dilapidated barns, and everything in between.  We got to the point (not wanting to stop at every barn we passed) of labeling some barns "whizzers" because they didn't have that "wow" factor enough to make us stop or even turn around (which we did do several several times), but were ordinary enough that we could just whizz by them.

 This beauty, complete with old weathered outbuildings, was at the end of a dirt road...what a find!  ML, who is much braver than I am, has no qualms about going onto a property, knocking at the door, and asking to photograph the barn. 

 We passed by this one and had to do a screeching stop on the side of the road.  Just couldn't resist all that sag and lean on the end.  It is beginning to fold in on itself, and will collapse one of these winters in the high winds and storms.  The owner (not of the original family) said the barn is over 100 years old.  We saw a lot of centennial farms where the original barn is still in use.

 While we were oohing and ahing over the barn, someone got curious and stuck his head around the corner to see what was going on.  The owner of the barn said that this guy had been owned by the Amish, and he is now enjoying retirement.

 Imagine our delight when we got up to Traverse City and discovered that there is an entire area set aside for the preservation of old barns.  So, we printed off a map and off we went to see what we could discover.  Plenty!  Some of the barns have been restored (like this one), others were in mid-preservation, and there were many that were still holding their ground, weathered and worn but standing strong.  The majority of the barns are on NPS-owned land, so we were free to park and wander and explore to our heart's content.

As we looked at this barn we moaned "If only we could be here in the fall!"  Autumn in Michigan is an explosion of colors, just like New England.  This old barn, and others like it, would be stunning against the multi-colored backdrop.  Since this one was privately owned, we had to be content with shooting from the shoulder of the road.

I love the amount of detail work that went into the cupola.  It is just a little touch of whimsy on an otherwise plain, no-nonsense barn.

Trippin'

I spent nine glorious days in Michigan with ML, showing her around to all the places that I've been telling her about for years, and exploring new ones with her.  It was so fun and so gratifying to see her fall in love with my Michigan...  We had perfect weather, perfect beaches, almost-perfect sunsets (not enough clouds, because as every photographer knows, clouds are our friends!), perfect food, perfect hikes....  You get the idea.  It was a Mary Poppins trip--practically perfect in every way.

I will be posting more photos, so buckle in over the next several posts.

 ML and I had an agreement not to take each other's photos unless the subject cleared it first; however, in this case I am glad that she snuck this one in.  Couldn't resist that rock cairn someone had built out on the rocky edge of the beach.  If the beach hadn't been so rocky and wet, I would've laid down for the shot.  Well, that and the fact that I would've had a challenge getting back up.

 Yep---there it is, perched above the waves...

'sperimenting

Rented an 11-16mm for my D90.  We actually had a sunny day yesterday so I scooted out to Rattlesnake Lake early in the morning to see what mischief I could get up to with the lens.  I think I am going to like it!

I was right in front of this stump--about a foot away...

I love a lens that lets me get down to water level and yet still get me the scope of the background.

While I was out and about and enjoying the sun and dry weather, I went over to The Falls to see what was going on.  I was early enough in the morning that the SUN (hey, sun in Seattle is a big deal) was hitting the mist and creating a mistbow.  I've seen them in the late afternoon in front of the falls, but never at the far end of the falls.  I count myself lucky!  Again, that trusty little super-wide let me get the entire mistbow as well as some of the river down below.