Driving Through Amish Countryside

There are dozens of Amish and Mennonite farms and settlements just a short drive from Tillsonburg. In order to accommodate Amish horse & buggies every larger store, including Wal-Mart, Metro Supermarket and even Canadian Tire have erected hitching posts on their parking lots. First time I saw horse & buggy in Canadian Tire parking lot I was amused, then I realized that they were there for farm hardware. Now, we don’t even give it a second look, it is just part of living in this community. Following images were taken last Saturday, January 4^th.

Sign says it all. This hitching post has seen its share of horses.

 

Returning from the field. I shot this through windshield of a moving car so quality is not great.

Old Amish one-room school, still in use.

Satellite view of the school – notice the baseball diamond and children playing outside.

Quaker settlers’ burying grounds.

Typical country road in Oxford County: no potholes, no bumps, just a pleasure to drive on.

Very old maple with cedar fence.

Pussy Willow on February 4^th?

Photo Excursion December 13th

I just love to get out early in the morning! From early spring to late fall it usually means getting out on golf course or out to the garden but in the off season if the weather is OK I like to get out and shoot some pictures and if the weather is lousy it is either computer or kitchen work. Here are some pictures I took yesterday morning before heading out to London. First three pictures were taken just one minute apart and last two were taken 10 minutes later.

 The Sun is poking through the trees just above number 7.

On the way to London we have spotted and photographed Snowy Owl (previous post) and on the way back driving through Amish settlements we saw two Amish man loading corn on horse drawn wagon and taking it to the barn for storage. The corn was harvested more than 2 months ago and the corn stalks were neatly stacked into a 6 foot high pyramids. All their storage bins were full with corn cobs so it looks like they are set for winter.