Sunday, December 7, 2008

Things I See On My Walk



This is the old shack that I wrote about In The Secret Message of Wallpaper back in July. I thought about poking my head into it today, but I'm a bit worried that a person may have taken up residence and spread out a sleeping bag during this chilly weather in one of the rooms that still has a floor.
Or that a fox is raising her cubs. Or something. I love old, falling-in houses on an existential level, but they scare me a little bit, too. There's something so sad about the lack of life in a place where there once was life.
A corpse, of sorts, I suppose.

Which naturally leads me to this picture:



This is an old graveyard which lies right beside one of the roads I walk. I didn't see it for months when I first started this route. It's not until winter comes and the underbrush thins out that you can see the headstones from the road. I wonder where the church was, because surely there was one nearby. Almost all the names are related in one way or another and I find it beautiful there- such a tiny resting place, the graves laid out so neatly in two straight rows. A surprising number of the graves hold people who lived to be into their eighties and even nineties. I think you had to be tough to live in Lloyd, back in the nineteenth century. I wonder if any of the people buried there ever lived in my house. Some of them predate it. It was (and is) such a small place that I am sure it's quite possible.






And then there's Lloyd Creek, running it's way through the old woods a few hundred yards from where Edward and Clara sleep. I've written about the creek before. Here and here. It's so beautiful down there and quiet. The water was a bit higher today because we've had rain recently but sometimes it's a tiny trickle and sometimes it's a bit more roaring. Today it was a nice silently running creek, making its way through the white sand with the trees above it.
I'm always happy down by that creek.

What is about water that calms the soul and soothes the heart?
I don't know but it's a sort of magic I am grateful for.







So that's it. These are a few of the things I see when I walk. I walked slowly today, considering what I should take pictures of. Maybe next time I'll take pictures of some of the trash and the truck stop which I also see, neither of them quite as picturesque, but interesting, nonetheless.

It's a beautiful Sunday here in Lloyd. And Mr. Moon is back. He didn't shoot a thing because he didn't see any deer he thought worth bringing home from Tennessee but he had a good time.
I think he's happy to be back, too.
It's nice to have him home.

11 comments:

  1. Maybe he really just didn't want to make more work for you wrapping all of that denison. ;) And how could he not be glad to be home with you and in such a lovely place as little Lloyd! It looks like such a magical, peaceful place to live.

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  2. Isn't is amazing how much more you see when you walk than when you drive? I think it's the pace we're genetically programmed to go.

    The cemetery could be a family one. In West Virginia, you can be buried on your own property, and when you drive out in the hollows, it's not uncommon to see clusters of grave markers right near a home. Seems much more personal to me, keeping the ones who've gone before us nearby.

    And how nice to have Mr. Moon back home, especially with no more venison to process. Sometimes the only reason I will agree to leave my home is for the pure joy of returning to it.

    Aren't we lucky to feel that way -- to have homes that wrap their arms around us?

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  3. I always find the lack of life in brand new, never lived in houses the saddest.

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  4. I think I'd like to walk along that route with you someday, Miss Moon =)

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  5. Ms. Lo- Another new picture? Did you do that one yourself? Lloyd is...funky and beautiful. Maybe tomorrow I'll post pictures of the more funky aspects. And get this- right after I wrote that thing about water being magic, a main blew and because we do live in Lloyd- I seriously doubt they'll do anything about it until tomorrow.
    No water. At least not running out of my pipes.

    Nannygoat- yes, on everything you said. We ARE lucky.

    Ms. Pimpalishisness- thank-you for dropping by! And you may be right. Sort of a still-born thing, rather than a corpse. At least old houses have a grace about them.

    SJ- come on down! We'll take that walk.

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  6. This is my avatar, Ms. Moon. Or at least a little version of it. ;) And I just want to ask you to check to see who owns that old shack because if I can afford it I want to buy it and live in it!

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  7. Beautiful. I enjoyed the photos!

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  8. There's something so incredibly calming about graveyards isn't there? I used to find them morbid, and I just don't anymore. Maybe it's because I have plenty of people waiting for me on the other side, or maybe I'm just growing up. Loved the pictures, Mrs. Moon. Loved 'em.

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  9. :) It's really beautiful there, Ms. Moon. I can see why you like your walks so much.

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  10. Aunt Becky, I have changed my feelings towards them lately, too. We buried both of my parents a year ago in this beautiful little cemetary tucked away on a hill in southern Ohio. When I was a kid it was such a drag to go with my parents to visit graves, but now I honor them. My husband says we all deserve a little piece of ground, and I'm so glad my parents made sure we all have ours in such a lovely spot. I was just thinking, when my sister told me it's snowed up there, that I want to go put a comfy quilt on their graves. Imagine cemeteries like that, with quilts and photos and favorite things, and nobody would take them.

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  11. That's why we should all be buried in our back yards.
    Sigh.

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Tell me, sweeties. Tell me what you think.