Fine old house

There seems to be so little activity on Flickr this morning. Hardly surprising with the website still in such a mess. Bad Pandas and almost every single thing not working properly or at all. Makes me wonder if Flickr is about to make yet another huge change. Also, I guess lots of people are out doing their Christmas shopping : ) I won't be posting any photos tomorrow morning, as I have an early start and won't have time to mess around with Flickr and all its present problems.

Last night, when I checked the weather forecast for today, 16 December 2017, I was so happy to see that it had changed and that the snowflake icons for last night and today had been removed. Well, how wrong can a forecast be?! Hello, again, winter! Woke up to glorious blue sky and sunshine - and a winter wonderland. Not what I wanted though, as I had just washed off all the gravel road dust and dried mud from my car, ready for spending a few hours out with my daughter for our Christmas get-together. The roads are not going to be good.

This photo, zoomed in from the road, was taken on 30 October 2017. I spent the day driving mostly roads that I had been along before (a round trip of 230 km). I still find a few roads so confusing! My destination was partly to check on two old barns that I had only seen and photographed once before. Having been there with my daughter in January 2015, I knew that there were several other old barns and homesteads en route. This day was definitely a barn day, not a bird or wildlife day. Once again, I added a touch of filter in post-processing, to bring out a bit more detail.

The large barn in a photo I posted a while ago was one that I had been looking forward to finding and seeing for the first time, which I finally did in January 2015, with my daughter. I would love to have been able to get photos from both sides of it, but it was in a farmer's field that was, of course, private property.

The second old barn that I saw in this area is in far worse condition, but I love it. It was funny, because I was standing in the road and had already taken a handful of photos of this crumbling, weathered structure, when I noticed someone walking towards me in the distance. Talk about deja vu! I started walking towards her and it turned out that she lived at the farm just down the road, but had previously lived in the house next to the decaying barn and it was her property. She told me to wander wherever I wished, take as many photos as I wanted. I laughed and said that in January 2015, when my daughter and I had been standing right there in the road, a lady came by on her horse and told us the very same story - it must have been the same person! Felt so good!

Another place I stopped at was a farmyard full of old barns, sheds and vehicles. I pulled over and stood by my car to take a quick shot of an old, blue truck from across the road. A person happened to just appear, walking across his farmyard, so I called out to him and we had a delightful chat. I think he was very amused at my passion for old things and told me to walk around and take whatever photos I wanted. Which I did, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself! The blue truck was just one of several old vehicles, mainly cars. I told him what an amazing place he had, full of interesting things. I got the impression that he saw things very differently - lots of old things that needed fixing or tidying up : ) I told him to just leave everything as it is - a photographer's dream : )

On the way home, I called in at the Saskatoon Farm to see if the restaurant was still open, but it had just closed (3:30 pm). I realized I had been enjoying myself so much that I had totally forgotten to eat anything all day. Managed to get a much-needed cup of coffee, though, and I did buy a box of frozen, uncooked Saskatoon Berry and White Chocolate scones. I bought some of these last time I was there and they are so good, piping hot, straight out of the oven.