Old homestead falling back to the earth. Shall we tell a story about the Grandma and Grandpa who once lived here?
Greenery surrounds
Where Grandma cooked supper
Where children chased fireflies
Green apples still blush as they ripen
Berries still shimmer in the morning dew
Where Grandpa once built a new table for Grandma, where he fed the horse, where he taught his boy to hammer nails.
We follow the path of life where it might lead, from our grandparents into this present moment.
Lake Superior Spirit 
“Green apples still blush as they ripen”
Kathy, I know the prairie version of this story. Your wonderful photos evoke so many memories, almost like yesterday. I love how these fading old buildings and homes still hold their stories and always feel a certain sadness when they’re finally gone. Summer hugs 🙂
I do always wonder about the stories of old houses and their people. Maybe part of it comes from my time working at the living history museum, where we did get to learn some of the stories, but never enough.
A wonderful pictorial essay.
A visual story about how ephemeral our civilized lives are in perspective to the natural world 🙂
When we build, create, and share … a sentimental person believes that what we built will last beyond our time… especially a homestead. I find it rather sad when I see these homes and other buildings that were left to disintegrate. We have so many old, small farms that have been abandoned to nature here … Americans don’t seem to value their old buildings (houses, churches, etc…). European farms, older than what you captured here, are still valued … they are improved and used and passed down.
I love to think about abandoned buildings in terms of all the energy that once breathed life there.
Funny how you can observe which parts are native reclaiming and which parts are the legacy of mankind’s actions.
Lovely series.
I love these photos. I always wonder what dreams the people that lived there had, and where they went. The people, not the dreams, though in retrospect the dreams might have fled as well.
In love with these photos. Thank you 🙂
“Where Grandpa once built a new table for Grandma, where he fed the horse, where he taught his boy to hammer nails.” It’s those precious simple moments that are the stuff of life, gone but not forgotten in our universal mind… Whenever I come across an old foundation in the woods I listen quietly, hearing the voices of the children chasing fireflies (we called them lightning bugs!) in the summer… Beautiful evocative pictures, Kathy!
I’ve always loved seeing the old houses, barns, churches and other buildings…built a long time ago…and I lose myself in wondering the stories they hold. I love the stories of history, the life stories of the people who lived before us. Thank you for these pictures of a special place in the woods and your words that gently gather us in and help us remember our stories of the past.
I am a geologist which means that I occasionally get to wander about the countryside looking at rocks here and there in Australia. I often come across the tumbled-down remnants of houses, barns and sheds together with trees and plants, all that remains of an old orchard or garden. Sometimes there are old graves beside the buildings. Up in Queensland and New South Wales the old buildings are sometimes completely covered by the reds and pink brightly flowering bougainvillea – very distinctive. These old buildings represent a time, and not that very long ago, when the Australian countryside was more densely settled. It is surprising how quickly the buildings deteriorate and other signs of human habitation disappear. Sometimes it is only the plants that remain. I often wonder about the people who once lived there and called it home.
Beautiful Kathy. I love finding places like this. Contemplating who lived there and what it was like.