Every historic building has a story to tell
This morning, I pulled a small greeting card – the last of its box – from my stationery drawer in anticipation of sending it off in the mail. I lingered for a while before putting pen to paper, looking at the snow-covered scene, with its red barns and other outbuildings, a silo, a line of (read more)
Categories: Farming, Kentucky agriculture
I played a little hooky on Monday. My work schedule has been pretty overwhelming lately, and although my mind dances with subjects I want to write about, I can’t seem to find the time for this blog. But on Monday, I took the time – around 20 minutes – and visited an old, old friend. (read more)
Categories: Farming, Kentucky history, Montgomery County
Tags: bur oaks, farming, Venerable trees
My perception of barns took a sharp detour during the short time I lived north of the Mason-Dixon line in Pennsylvania. There, the complexity, grandeur, and beauty of what is known as the Pennsylvania barn* completely changed my understanding of this most visible of agricultural outbuildings. I felt the same way with my first glimpse of (read more)
When I took a break from writing the afternoon of January 30, 2016, I was immediately transfixed by the malevolent black clouds visible through the windows. And when I ventured onto the Internet, to all of the reports of explosions and fire ravaging the Blue Grass Stockyards, I felt sick. Since starting this blog, I’ve (read more)
Categories: Bluegrass, Farming, Fayette County, Kentucky agriculture, Vernacular
Tags: Blue Grass Stockyards, Cattle, fire, Kentucky farms, stockyards
A recent article on Facebook listing 12 beautiful barns in the Bluegrass caught my eye the other day. Excited, I clicked, scrolled, and then I sighed. While I am always happy to see articles extolling Kentucky’s amazing buildings, I didn’t think this list was…all that great. I am in a different position than many when (read more)
Categories: Barns, Farming, Historic Preservation, Kentucky architecture, Log construction, Mercer County, Vernacular
Tags: barns, farming, Kentucky barns, Log construction
As a child coming to Lexington, I was always fascinated by the buildings I saw in the distance, even more so then the lovely historic homes that lined the roadway. North Broadway/Paris Pike was our main route into town most days, and back on Loudon Avenue was a large, brick angled structure with signs painted (read more)
Categories: Bluegrass, Farming, Fayette County, Kentucky architecture, Lexington
Tags: E.B. Drake, Night-Riders, tobacco, warehouse
I am the youngest of four children, and a big gap in years exists between my siblings and me. It worked well for my mother, as my two sisters helped watch me (and dress me up, and cut my hair, and put makeup on me…) but as their activities took up more and more time, (read more)
Categories: Bath County, Bluegrass, Farming, Historic Preservation, Kentucky, Kentucky architecture
Tags: Bath County, Owingsville, Stories
Growing up on a farm influenced me and my interests in many ways, most of which are difficult to explain to anyone who grew up “in town.” The cycle of life and death never recedes into the background on a farm, and while that doesn’t make personal loss any easier, it does shape the way (read more)
Categories: Bluegrass, Farming, Historic Preservation, Kentucky architecture, Louisville
Tags: Bourbon Stockyards, Butchertown, Cattle, Louisville
The press in the past few days about the Lorillard Lofts building made me stop and think about tobacco. Not the tobacco barns or the fields I know well as the daughter of a farmer, but the impact that the burley tobacco industry had on Lexington in the 20th century. A few years ago I (read more)
Categories: Bluegrass, Farming, Fayette County
Tags: #burleytobacco, #kentuckyagriculture, #lexingtonky, #liggettandmyers
Spring oozes poetry. Jonquils and crocus burst from the previously frozen ground, the spring sky (when not gray and rainy) transcends the color blue, and picture-perfect lambs and calves cavort – all these stock metaphors of the season inspired someone, somewhere, to verse. And although I feel winter’s gloom has stretched on for immeasurably too (read more)
Categories: Bluegrass, Farming, Kentucky architecture
Tags: abandoned, Edwin Arlington Robinson, poetry, Spring
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