Amid The Amish

R O A D   T R I P   P A R T   T W O !

Hello my fellow travelers

I hope today is going to bring you peace and happiness. I would love to share with you a few more images of our short visit to what I call Amish Country. We recently visited Holmes County, Ohio, the largest population of Amish in the United States. I introduced our brief stay in my prior post and you can read about it here.

I do have a lot to say about our trip, and I will eventually get to the "touristy" part in my next post, but as I went through my pics, I am still enamored with the rolling hills, the simple beauty, and old-world lifestyle of the majority of those living in that area seem to embrace. I think I am a little jealous of it! 

Today, I would love to share what I call "snippets" of what I saw to be the Amish way of life in this area. I do have a few personal stories that happened while on our trip that I want to share with you, but I will do that next time. Today, I will share some personal feelings and thoughts I have about some of the images.

I am will show you a bit of this and that of what we experience just about every corner we turned, without even going out to look for it. I think that is what made our visit so very pleasant, easy, and restful. We weren't on the "hunt" for an experience, it just happened. 

I will admit, that a large part of our enjoyment, just had to be weather. Even that first photo at the top, I took just because as we drove up over the hill, and I saw all those clouds, I yelled, "Stop!" As you can see, we are pretty much alone on that dirt road, and my dear barber husband, I am thinking, is used to my yelling this and not freaking out, as he can see my camera already up and aiming. But when I saw those clouds, it was like a painting to me. And while these bird houses are just charming (and they were all OVER the place!) the deep blue sky was just the perfect backdrop.

And then it just seemed we kept turning down these roads and coming across Norman Rockwell farms and as we drove closer and closer, I just kept clicking and clicking seeing it from  different angles and we just enjoyed the beautiful silence - and the clicking of my camera - and me of course, sighing behind the camera and talking to myself and saying, "Oh that is nice," or "Oh shoot," or "Oh, man" or "Oh you should see this..." now that I think about it, it probably wasn't all that quiet for my barber husband, but he assures me he enjoys hearing me so happy behind my camera having my own happy conversation...my good friend Debbie Dusenberry once told me that it will be an easy transition for my barber husband should I slip into dementia in my old age...she said he probably won't be able to tell much difference. LOL :-)

We got out at a vegetable stand and my beloved bought some tomatoes to take back to our log cabin. While barber husband bought them from the Amish, I walked over the fields and snapped some of the most beautiful fields and sky I think I ever seen. Sometimes, I really think I was born in the wrong era or location. 

Even as a kid, I was the only one in my family that ever dug in the dirt to grow things. I had a little garden in the corner of our yard growing up and grew a little patch of vegetables. I was the kid in the family that made the birthday cakes and loved to cook. I also was the kid that learned to sew at a really young age. I loved to play outside and I was one of those kids that hated to go inside to eat or pee. I would forego lunch and "hold it" because I was so engrossed in whatever activity I was doing outside. It's funny, to this day, my barber husband will call me up during the day and ask me if I ate anything when I am doing a huge project - he has learned that I will go hours without eating because I still get so engrossed in my work. And yes, not that you asked, but I have been accused by colleagues of having the strongest bladder they have ever seen. I know, neither habit is good at all, but it is funny how habits as a kid can stick with you as an adult and you don't really realize it.

 I was enamored with all the clothes hung out to dry. I am guessing Mondays are wash days, as the lines were full every where! I grew up an era of standing on a stool to help take down the laundry. It is rare where I live to ever see laundry hung out to dry. After seeing so many lines of laundry hung out to dry, I will admit there was a pang in my heart of a time gone by. I remember being really young and playing with my little brother under the towels and pushing them around as mom tried to get her work done. And then the empty clothes ling became our personal jungle gym until mom hollered out the window to "Get off that before you hang yourself!"

Buggies were everywhere and so were the bicycles. Children, women and even hard working farmers. The nicest thing about it? No noisy motors or horns! It was so serene. 

Of course, when I saw this stall of buggies and horses, I just had to stop and snap a pic...

Why? Because this "parking stall" was at the Walmart store parking lot! Yes, I guess even the Amish like a good deal too. And here, Walmart provides a parking area for the buggy and horse  customers too!

But I get the feeling that most of the time, the Amish are spending their time in the fields, and not at Walmart.

So funny how worlds apart I am from the Amish. I saw this cart earlier in the day while at an Amish farm, buying a basket (next post story) and I thought, "Oh, how nice, they are going for a hay ride..." and I was dying to take a picture, but my camera was in the truck, as I was in an Amish home, and not pictures should really be taken. I just died that I missed it. Later, down the road, we saw the same wagon and the "hay riders" who actually, were on their way to work! In  my world, riding a hay wagon, means playtime, and in their world, it means work. LOL. As you can see by the blurry bottom of the pic, we were driving right past as I tried to snap a pic. 

There is so much more to share...but next time, I want to share what I feel is my most memorable experience that made such an impression on me. And it took place at the farm in the above photo where we bought a huge blanket basket from a lovely young Amish wife and mother of ten beautiful children. It was like walking right into a story book.

I only hope I can tell the story as lovely as the experience.

Until then my wonderful friends. I hope these images inspire you to see the natural beauty around you, even if you live right in the city. I know the sun will set where you live and maybe take a moment today, and enjoy it, if possible. 

from my house to you house,

Elizabeth