Through the gate and up the hill through the wooded area and you will come to the back lot. After my climb, I need to stop and catch my breath so I stop here by the hayfield. The hay is lush and bright green from all the rain this spring. Sometimes there are deer browsing along the edge. Once I saw a doe and her fawn nibbling the brush. One spring we saw a dozen deer in the field, grazing on the new grass. There is usually a hawks nest there across the field. They sit and wait for some poor critter. You can watch them soaring overhead . If you cross over to the other side, there is a pond that is covered with waterlillies with yellow blossoms. You can hear bullfrogs there and see the Painted Turtles that have climbed out on a tree that has fallen into the water. I"ve seen a few kinds of herons here.
On this side, developers have started building. I turn back into the woods and
continue my walk. The woods are not spectacular, some part of it used to be a
tobacco field. It is now owned by a local land trust so at least this area won't
be disturbed, but it is being disturbed, after all, by a youngster on a dirt bike.
He does "wheelies" on the walking path, managing to dig up roots and making ruts.
My little camera can do panoramas but I have never successfully done a
good one. This is my latest attempt. I"ll keep working on it.
I tried to correct the spacing of these lines, but nothing works! Darn!
This was Mother's camera, given to her, I think, in 1910. She was 16 years old. She began to record life on the farm. All pictures and negatives were carefully saved. She continued taking photos until Kodak stopped producing film in that size. A roll had eight pictures. The negative size was maybe 2 3/4 inches by 41/2. I guess most pictures were printed as contact prints. My sister's and my childhoods are all there. Our hair styles changed as we got older. My sister never cut her hair and still hasn't to this day. I was given what was called a "shingle" which was not a pretty style. Here we are in, ( I guess I'm dating myself here), 1930 and 1931. Picture taking rules for us were: Sunny days only. Stand facing the camera and looking into the sun. Smile. My sister and I fought constantly but you'd never know it. We usually stood holding hands. The farm photos have been passed on, along with the camera to a cousin still living on the farm. 
