Drinking Deeply Of Memory

A few recent edits of places seen in our travels ....

(click photos to enlarge for better detail)

An abandoned home somewhere on the backs roads of Kent County, Maryland ... seen last summer

We were traveling to Bethlehem, PA, in search of the now-derelict Bethlehem Steel Plant, when we passed this church and pulled in to walk through the cemetery in the back lot ....

Another abandoned home, seen somewhere in Virginia near Wallops Island ....

A beautiful Victorian style home on the main street of Laurel, Delaware

I loved these three side-by-side vintage chairs sitting on a porch in Laurel ....

A gorgeous house, but a strange yard, even featuring a full-sized sculpture of a cow named Eloise .... located on a side street in Laurel ....

House for sale in Laurel ... including a white picket fence

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Wells Dug In Our Hearts

It's no secret .... I love houses and old buildings.   Here are a few local ones that have captured my eye ....  (click on photos to enlarge for much better detail)

This old house sits in front of the marina, just before you cross the bridge onto Taylor's Island in Dorchester County, Maryland.   My sister Bonnie and I were there in late Autumn, and we watched the sun set over the river.

This is a Victorian home that is under renovation in the Newtown District of Salisbury, Maryland ... I love the lace curtains hanging in the windows.

Another house in the Newtown District .... anyone in the market?   I love the sun porch and the balcony and the dormer windows on the top floor.

This house sits in Dover, Delaware.   I love the wraparound porch.   I was visiting my niece and she took me to the downtown historic section of Dover to capture a few photos.   When we neared this house, we noticed a squirrel running along the porch rails.   He scampered to and fro for some time.   I really like the shadows in this shot.

Gary and I rode to Laurel, Delaware yesterday afternoon, in search of fences.  I belong to a group on Flickr called "fence friday" ... so I am always on the lookout for old and unique fences.   We parked in the church parking lot next to this old house and were taken with the architecture of the place.   It's for sale, too.  I'm actually not finished with this edit ... I will be adding a texture before I post it on Flickr.

And lastly, we spotted this old chicken house last Spring while we were traveling the back roads near Whitehaven.   One of the few old surviving chicken houses that made it through last year's winter snow storms.   Many, many of them died their deaths from the weight of the back-to-back storms.  This one hasn't held chickens for a long time, I don't believe.

"On any given day, something claims our attention [literally "grabs our hearts"]. Anything at all, inconsequential things. A rosebud, a misplaced hat, that sweater we liked as a child, an old Gene Pitney record. A parade of trivia with no place to go. Things that bump around in our consciousness for two or three days then go back to wherever they came from... to darkness. We've got all these wells dug in our hearts. While above the wells, birds flit back and forth."

— Haruki Murakami

What kinds of wells are dug in your heart?

Hope everyone is having a beautiful January ....

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More Memories of Philadelphia

Sharing a few more photos from our trip to Philadelphia ...

Little birds on a bush ...

Pink Bicycle ....

The First Continental Congress met in this very spot ... these Windsor chairs are the original chairs used at that time

Colorful Doors ...

A museum in the historic district ....

When we left the museum, this horse was pulling a carriage full of tourists ...

Beautiful architectural detail ....

Red Berries ....

Beautiful windows ...

"But no one except Lucy knew that as it circled the mast it had whispered to her, "Courage, dear heart" ... and the voice, she felt sure, was Aslan's, and with the voice a delicious smell breathed in her face."

— C.S. Lewis (The Voyage of the Dawn Treader)

Wishing everyone a New Year filled with Courage ....

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My Prayer For The New Year

"Give me Yourself, O my God, give Yourself back to me. Lo, I love You, but if my love is too mean, let me love more passionately. I cannot gauge my love, nor know how far it fails, how much more love I need for my life to set its course straight into Your arms, never swerving until hidden in the shelter of Your face. This alone I know, that without You all to me is misery, woe outside myself and woe within, and all wealth but nothing, without my God."


— St. Augustine of Hippo (Confessions)

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