Skagit barn...

Washington's Skagit Flats is home to dozens of farms, complete with barns and farmhouses. But the properties are so large, it's sometimes hard to get close enough for detail. We were heading for a trailhead when I spotted this farmstead, and stopped to take a photo. I love the way it's nestled between two small hills, against a backdrop of Whidbey Island and the Olympic Mountains.

Check out Tom's Barn Collective for more barns.

Washington Park

We left a day early for a long weekend on Whidbey Island, for our niece's wedding. Time for exploring, and geocaching, and photography. Our favorite route to the Deception Pass bridge, the gateway to Whidbey, takes us across Fir Island in the middle of the Skagit Flats. with (usually) a detour to the small town of La Conner. I love this drive, past farms and farmhouses and barns, and in winter, thousands of snow geese and swans.



There's a back way out of La Conner that takes you over the natural waterway that separates Fidalgo from the mainland, then along Skagit Bay, the part of Puget Sound that runs east of Whidbey Island. There are beaches to walk, and beautiful views from this road.

Once on Fidalgo, you can explore Anacortes, or hop a ferry to the San Juan Islands, or take the 5-minute ferry crossing to Guemes Island (something we've never done, but plan to do this summer). Guemes is one of a handful of small islands just north of Whidbey Island; just east of but not part of the San Juans.

Or you can drive to the very western tip of Fidalgo, and go hiking in Washington Park. A lot of people choose to ignore the trails and walk on the narrow, windy road instead. Not a great idea, in my opinion. It is not fun to come around a steep, blind corner and encounter people and their dogs, spread out across the one-lane road. Just saying.

We were short on time today, so found parking above the nearly bare hillside on the south side of the park, overlooking Burrows Island (yep, more islands). We had several trails to choose from, and decided to take the shortest (and steepest) path. We made our way (carefully) down a rocky trail, following a woman who sat down right at the edge of the dropoff, and pulled out a sketch pad and watercolor paints. DW stopped for a photo, so I did the same. Look closely, and you'll see the faint rocky path that switchbacks down the hill. And in the distance, you can see Lopez Island, part of the San Juans.



It's a steep trail, a bit scary in places, but the reward was good: this beautiful rocky shoreline and crystal clear water to photograph. We were still about 30 feet above the actual rock shelf, but that was close enough for me.

Share where you live... Barn

I love to drive the back roads in search of barns and farmhouses, two of my favorite structures. This isn't the kind of barn I ever want to find.

We took a closer look at this one when we stopped for a geocache in the fence nearby, and it looks like a main beam in the roof failed, and it brought most of the roof down with it. Unless it's replaced, the rest of the barn will follow.

Travel a country road, find a barn | #17

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This is #17 on the @twistedroadstudio summer photography scavenger hunt

Barn symmetry...

When farmhouses still stand side-by-side with their barns, to me that's perfect symmetry.

Cat's feet...

The fog comes 

on little cat feet. 

It sits looking 

over harbor and city 

on silent haunches 

and then moves on.

... Carl Sandburg

I chased the fog this morning, through river valleys and pastures, all the way to my favorite farm. I've photographed it in all seasons, but never on a foggy morning. The best view is from the east, but the fog was so thick this morning. I couldn't even see the barn.

So I had to be content with this view, with the fog rising up out of the Green River Valley spreading south to envelope the buildings, and the pre-dawn light sucking all the color out of the landscape.

Barn quilt...

In Washington, they aren't very common outside of Ellensburg, but occasionally I stumble across a barn quilt. This old farm is protected from the west winds by one of the "humps" of the Enumclaw plateau, a remnant of a long-ago lahar flow from nearby Mount Rainier.



The quilt block is a Friendship Star variation.

Centennial barn...

A week ago, we spent a few days in one of our favorite places: the Walla Walla valley. Home to wheat fields, wineries, and a beautiful old downtown, we love it there. On one of our morning drives, we came up over a ridge of hills to find this stunning red barn surrounded by the bright green of new wheat.





Some research found that this farm is one of Washington's Centennial farms (and one of many in Walla Walla County). A centennial farm is one that is still in the same family that first homesteaded the land.



Linking up today with Tom's Barn Collective.

Tailor made...

Quilting, and getting started pruning the orchard (and rain and snow!), has kept me off the back roads lately. So I thought I'd dredge up some older photos of favorite barns to share for the next few weeks, until I can get back out there.

In the southeast corner of Washington is an amazing place called the Palouse. It's home to rolling hills and blue skies, wheat fields, old farms and homesteads. It's one of the most photogenic places I know. I love driving the winding back roads that snake between the hills and up the creek valleys, and I love the barns and farmhouses.

The Palouse is home to some of the most unique barns I've ever seen, like this one.



It's near the turn to Palouse Falls, a huge pair of barns built as mirror images of each other. As near as I can find out, these were built to house draft horses, back when horses pulled the farm equipment to harvest the wheat fields. They tower over the small original farmhouse (on the other side of the dirt farm road), and the much newer and larger house just behind it.

I would love to walk up the drive and knock on the door, and ask about the history of these barns. Maybe this spring, I will.

Linking up on Tom's Barn Collective this week.

Barns and horses...

A break in the storm took us out on the trails today, and the rain held off until the last hundred feet before we reached the truck. And then it let loose. Still, I took a chance and got a little wet, to snap a few pictures of this beautiful Gothic barn, built of cinder blocks, with fresh paint and a metal roof.

And as we drove into town for breakfast at our favorite little diner, I thought about barns and rain, and being a horse owner. Some of my happiest times were spent in a barn, taking care of my Thoroughbred gelding, who would stand in the barn aisle and nod off to the sound of rain drumming on the roof.

A barn is a cozy place to be on a rainy day. I never minded cleaning stalls or moving bales of hay, sweeping the aisle or filling water buckets. On sunny days, I'd be itching to saddle up and go for a ride on the trails, or head up the road to the ring where I had my lessons.

But on rainy days, I'd linger. Read all the messages on the chalkboard, about who was going out of town, and which horses needed someone to exercise them. Straighten up the tack room. And on my week to feed, stuff hay into hay nets for each stall, and measure out grain and supplements for each horse. I'd check that the hanging blankets had dried overnight, and lay them out ready for the next day. Once the horses were in their stalls at the end of the day, I'd clean my stall, listening to the horses munch their hay, lick the last few grains of oats out of their feeders, and drink deeply from their water buckets.

I'd breathe deep, and inhale the wonderful, special aroma of horses.

Foggy...

Today we took a chilly early morning walk on the Enumclaw rail trail before breakfast at Charlie's. The Mountain didn't make an appearance, but we still had a payoff: this beautiful dairy barn, just beginning to show the light from the rising sun.

January barn...

Last week I ditched my Tuesday sewing group, and drove the back roads with my camera, looking for light, and clouds, and barns. On a country road at the north end of Maple Valley, I found this beautiful old dairy barn for my collection.



Linking up today on Tom's Barn Collective.

Foggy morning...

It was foggy when I got up this morning, pulling on my boots and coat for a very early morning walk. I grabbed my camera and gloves, and slipped quietly out the front door.

There was still snow on the ground, and it's cold. To grab a phrase that belongs to Christmas, "not a creature was stirring." No animals bleating for their breakfast, no cars on the road. It was utterly still, and beautiful.

I crunched through the snow to the barn, where a pair of owls raised a family this past summer.

The 1910 barn on my sister and brother-in-law's property is one of my favorites. I walked out to the road, intending to walk up the hill to get a different view. But as soon as I stepped onto the pavement, I felt the ice under my feet.

So I retreated back to the warm house, a fresh pot of coffee, and my book.

Favorite farmhouses...

A couple of weeks ago, I posted photos of one of my favorite farmhouses. The pictures were from years ago, and for some reason I was thinking about the house this morning. So, even though it was raining (still), I decided to head that direction. I've only driven past when there were leaves on the trees, and wondered if I could get better pictures today.

The house is smaller than my own farmhouse, but I love the one-story room they added to one side. It's something I always wished we could do with our own farmhouse, but it wouldn't have worked for us.



I also love their barn, which I've never had a clear view of before. Today I was brave and walked up the gravel drive to the barn and outbuildings, and shot a few quick pictures to add to my collection of barn photographs.

Key barn...

A rainy day last March, exploring Key Peninsula
We got wet (really wet)
We found a bunch of geocaches
I found a barn

I don't know the history of this place, just that from the main highway, it looks like a gambrel barn with an old house, and a couple of other outbuildings. But from the side road, which skirts this inlet on Puget Sound, the barn is actually built out over the water, set on pilings.

The area was settled in the late 1890s, and a community called Home was settled nearby. Beach homes mainly, except for a utopian community of anarchists who made it their home around the turn of the 20th century. Working together, early Home families built a community of homes, stores, social halls, hotels, and schools, plus a telephone exchange, a post office, and a baseball grandstand.

Favorite barns...

There are a lot of places I like to go to photograph barns, but one of my favorites is the Enumclaw Plateau. There are dairy farms and horse farms, 100-year-old barns and modern barns, and plenty of old farmhouses.



On the east side of the county is a short road that begins and ends at the main county road that travels from north to south. At one end is one of my favorite farmhouses, painted in rich green with white trim, with a wonderful addition at one side.  It is smaller than my own old farmhouse, but this one has all the original trim and interior millwork and built-in cabinetry of a Craftsman house. And it has a barn.

At the other end of the road is one of my favorite barns, a small gable style with a side addition. It's rustic and charming, and has a new metal roof to protect it from the elements.

Both structures are equally well tended, and both are best photographed in winter, when the leaves are off the trees.

I never tire of taking this side road, or picturing myself living in the beautiful green farmhouse.

Sharing today on Tom's Barn Collective.

Kittitas Valley homestead...

A couple of decades ago, my best friends moved from the wet side to central Washington, to enjoy retirement on the dry side. They traded the rain for nearly constant wind, lots of sunshine, and almost no traffic... which sounds like a pretty good trade-off.



A few years ago, they finally convinced an aging parent to join them, and found the perfect house for her. It's close (making those daily chores easier for my friends), and it's on an old homestead.



The original house is long gone, but the property has two aging barns (a broken gable-style barn, and a smaller saltbox-style barn), and a collection of other small buildings, including a cold room near the house, and a long shed with windows that became the chicken coop.





Before they started repairs on the larger barn, I spent a few hours photographing it. The timbers are sound, but the roof needs work. Half is protected by metal roofing, the other half has missing shakes.

The inside (like many old barns) was full of stuff abandoned by the former owner: stacks of lumber, moldy hay, broken bits of harness and equipment, lots of bits of rusted metal, a tangle of hot wire, and even a broken bamboo fly rod.



I loved spotting things that showed that draft horses once lived here... one side of the barn has huge stalls, complete with hay racks and mangers. The other side has a long manger for the cows, each with their own spot labeled with their name.



They spent weeks clearing it out, digging down to the bones of the barn. During the process, several people stopped by to see if they'd sell the barn wood siding.

Thankfully, they said no.

. . . . .

Linking up today on Tom's Barn Collective.

A barn in winter...

My camera and I haven't traveled the backroads lately, looking for barns and fall color. The other things in my life, like quilting, have kind of taken over.



So instead of a new barn photo, I will instead share some photographs of one of my favorite barns. It belongs to my brother-in-law and sister, on the land that his family homesteaded. It's an interesting hybrid style, with a milking room built on one side.



I took these on a misty, cold December day when the clouds were low, and I could see my breath. I love how the clouds turned the photograph into a watercolor painting. It was quiet, and nothing else was stirring, not even the birds.



Linking up today with Tom's Barn Collective.

Red...

A couple of weeks ago we spent the weekend on Whidbey Island, then another day or so exploring the back roads of Skagit County. Along the way we found a fun string of geocaches, and this beautiful barn. So while DW looked for the cache, I walked across the road with my camera and took a few photographs. I never could resist a beautiful barn, especially one that's freshly painted.



This barn reminds me of the one behind Parkdale, with Mount Hood in the background. Same color, same shape. Just the mountain is missing.

Linking with Tom's Barn Collective today. Check out the link for a tour of this week's barn photos.

Whidbey Island barns...

A couple of weeks ago, DW and I spent the weekend on Whidbey Island, camping out with the family on our niece's wooded 5 acres. I heard the wind blow during the night, and raindrops fall on our tent, so I didn't have much hope for an early morning photo tour of the island. But when I got up and dressed and zipped the tent behind me, it was dewey but not wet. So I grabbed my camera and keys and quietly slipped off to explore as the sun came up.



Just around the corner from my niece's little cabin in the woods, I found this old farmstead with red barn, chicken coop, tractor shed, and farmhouse, all with white trim. And a perfect view east toward the rising sun, with clouds reflecting in the pond.



I lingered for half an hour, hoping for the sunrise to bring color to the sky, but it never happened. Just the bright morning light behind the clouds, as the night brightened into day.

Linking up today on the Barn Collective.

Spring in the valley..

The Kittitas Valley in central Washington has a rich farming heritage, and the broad open valley is home to more than a hundred barns. Many are on the Washington Heritage Barn registry, and many sport brightly colored quilt blocks. Because Kittitas Valley is also home to Washington's only barn quilt trail.

It's one of my favorite places to photograph historic barns. The light is beautiful and the views are wide open. Best of all, most of the valley is still being farmed. Some farms are managed today by the third generation of the original families.



Adding this barn to Tom's Barn Collective today. Check out his page for more beautiful barns.