Favourite Barns
Sometimes my favourite barn is the West Barn, sometimes my favourite barn is the Home Barn. Yesterday my favourite was the West Barn. Favourites move about – this is the key. If you have a favourite forever you need to re-evaluate your favourite criteria.
Things were quiet yesterday, gentler, there was no reason for me to be anywhere in any kind of hurry so I hung out in the West Barn for a while. Poppy has come back into heat so it was noisy and busy down below (she is not quite ready so I locked her in the corner pen later on so they do not fight) but shimmering with cold and hope up above. The animals know I throw the afternoon hay down from above so they crane their necks watching for the hay that descends like the fluttering of an open telephone book.
Poppy and Manu do not look up. They are too busy with their hormones.
It always feels to me that the West Barn is warmer than the Home Barn. The West Barn has not been ruined by one of Johns anscestors modernising it. It leaks in the rain of course – even with its new roof, but it still has a gentle harmonious feel.
In fact it was so warm in the West Barn yesterday afternoon that I was able to remove my outer gloves – not the inner gloves you understand but it was an invigorating step.
I hope you have a lovely day.
Love celi
ps. I just finished listening to the most beautiful book: Heft by Liz Moore. Wonderful.
57 Comments on “Favourite Barns”
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That is a lovely barn indeed! Good luck Manu and Poppy 🙂
Love the description of hay fluttering down to the waiting, upturned faces, like manna from heaven! Now, let’s hope Manu and Poppy get on with their business as amicably as before – I want to see lots of piglets!
Poppy coming back into heat – what a surprize! No piglets yet to come… I love the West Barn very much too, it’s architectural style and all the shots you make of it – from outside as well as inside…
I wish you to have a lovely week end!
What a beautiful barn.
That barn looks like a warm sanctuary. I would like to sit there, in less cold weather, and just see where my thoughts take me. The color of the light playing on the old wood is special.
I like the barn. I enjoyed playing in our barn as a kid. They are like a big playhouse.
The timbers are gorgeous. How old is that barn?
I am not sure – around 80 – 100 years i would think – things are young in this country – it grew fast .. c
My aunt who died last night was 100, so I’ll keep that age in my head for your barn.
Dear Misky…I have a cousin who is only 93. She and my dad were first cousins. Love, Gayle
My mother is 91. There were three sisters aged 100, 92 and 91.
I love barns… I always have. Growing up on a farm, us kids used to sneak to the forbidden barn and corn cribs to play “house”. I still go back to the old home place (my brother owns the farm house and buildings but we’ve sold the farm land) and I love to poke around in the lower area and climb up into the hay loft. Here, we have one poultry barn left. There used to be three of them as FD’s great uncles used to run a poultry farm – in fact, back in the day they raised award-winning Leghorns for their magnificent egg production! I bet they would do a lot of snickering at the way my mother-in-law (their great niece) raises her chickens. 😀
You can have fun in a barn like that. Those were the days.
love,
ViV x
Yes, I’m with ViV! The West Barn would be a great place for a ‘hootenanny,’ a barn dance, with all the neighbors from miles around, and a band playing and dancing and courting and having big fun! Only when it is much, much warmer though! 🙂
Well, you know about my neighbours. There will be no band playing and dancing with this lot. One backed her car right into my truck as I passed her drive way yesterday, did not even look, I know it is a seldom used road but I was surprised, The dogs and I almost drove into the ditch to avoid her hitting us and as she pulled to a stop at the last minute, then drawing equal with me trying to wrestle the truck up from the edge of the ditch, she just glared at me – I raised my hand as though to say never mind thats ok and smiled but she glared some more and took off past me. No dancing with this lot around here I think – they make me want to go home.. c
How rude, like it was your fault because you were on the road. No dancing with my my neighbour either and she makes me want to go home too….to a new home…..and I’m doing just that, this, my loved home for 8 years where I thought I’d happily live out my days, is sold and settled and I move in 4 weeks to my new home, to get away from an also rude and inconsiderate neighbour. Oh, thought I’d done with it, but up comes the anger and sadness again, it’s alien to me how people can be aware of how they affect others’ lives but choose to ignore it, have no conscience or care about any but themselves.
Oh, poor Netty. So sorry for you. I can understand you very very well. Wish you good luck with your new neighbours!!!
And Celi, well, I think “lot” is the right word for people like that… What’s in their head?
Thankyou Irmi…..luckily, my new place has no neighbours, the house sits between two large parks 🙂 But I’m still in the same neighbourhood where all my friends are…..good hey? I mustn’t be sad, and it’s not all the time, just hits me sometimes what this woman has done with no conscience.
Celi, your neighbours sound like some of mine, but thankfully not all!
Celi, you have had your bones jostled. Do you ever go to a chiropractor? I worked for one for 4 years and am rather convinced. Much love, Gayle
I love the bone structure of the West Barn, it’s like a cathedral but sturdy. Feels like a safe place to shelter.
I wish you many more gentle days without outer gloves.
One of my earliest memories is so clear that I can still see the dust motes in the sunlight as it streamed through the windows of the barn. I was riding my shiny red tricycle down the center aisle, so I couldn’t have been very old. I must have found that the smooth cement fulfilled my need for speed much better than the rough dirt roads. As I was riding towards the big doors at the end, they suddenly opened, and the cows came in. They were great giant beasts with fangs and claws. I was sure they were going to run right over me leaving nothing but a grease spot and a few bent spokes, but I brazenly stood my ground. I clearly remember seeing the shocked face of my grandfather, who may have assumed the same thing. But the 28 gentle animals just marveled at the novelty, leaving a teardrop of empty space around me as they quietly moved to their appointed places. As I tell you this story, these many years later, I can still see their faces inches from mine, and the curiosity in their eyes
How completely stunning – a perfect memory. Thank you so much for writing it for us..thank you.. c
Beautifully written recollection. I could really picture it.
GREAT story and well-told. I loved it.
Thank you for your appreciation. Even though I am now a city girl, I will always be a Minnesota Dairy Farmer’s Daughter, with a never ending love of beautiful barns and curious cows.
I love barns. Ours is gone now, Terry turned it into a machine shed, but I remember the days.
Linda
We had our Matric Farewell dance in a real barn …. it was great but a bit itchy as all the seating was straw bales. The West barn is beautiful with all that old timber and solid stall structures. Laura
Love this barn! Can’t wait for it to be open for visitors:)
Love this barn. Can’t wait for it to have visitors
Love this barn! Can’t wait for it to host visitors:)
Oh C. You own a real treasure of a barn from a bygone era as they say. The timber work is just beautiful. I have a collection of barn photos that I have taken all over the country and often wish I could walk through them and feel their history. Do you remember the scene in the Thorn Birds when Meggie is standing in their family barn with the dust particles floating in the sun rays. It’s beautiful. I thought of that when I saw your photo of the barn’s timbers in the ceiling.
I never saw the movie – maybe I will find it tonight! c
I wonder what sort of horse was cooped up in Poppy and Manu’s stall? It obviously decided, out of boredom, that it would eat the shorter stall walls. 🙂 I know also, that donkeys are more prone to such behavior than horses. Did John’s people have donkeys?
Fingers crossed that Poppy and Manu’s piglet making is successful this go-round. 🙂
No – a cousin had Clydsdales in there – I love the chewed on edges, they are very smooth.. c
I love the rectangles of light glowing at intervals, it looks so peaceful and other worldly.
Loved the barn ‘tour’. Especially the views from up above – looking down into the animal nests … A barn newbie question … I ‘think’ I see the hay wagon in the loft. Does that mean your barn has some kind of slope on one side that allows it to access the upper area while the other side of the barn opens one story lower? Quite a feat in your flatlander region I’d think.
hi Mouse, no, the barn is one level, I was standing on top of the hay to take those photographs, the hay rack is on the ground just inside a gate – it is hard to get a real feel for a place through photographs isn’t – i often feel i should draw the farm with anecdotal comments all over the drawing! c
Ahhh … now I see. Such a beautiful building! Love the roof beams and the glowing wood. AND the critters! 😉 Thanks Celi.
My favorite barn is the one I can call mine. I was without one in my urban days and I missed it (and the warm horses inside) so much that, eventually, no travel or city adventure could distract me from my need to have a barn again. Now I do and it is my favorite place.
Nothing gets in the way of a determined woman.. or nothing with any sense anyway! c
The West Barn is like a Shakespearian Theatre. Of course it is really… so much action goes on there and we have Dress Circle seats!
Yes! The pigeons are up in the peanut gallery! c
Beautiful barn and post, but the pearl of wisdom– “If you have a favourite forever you need to re-evaluate your favourite criteria”. Love it.
Yes, we change all the time, and our tastes change too c
Well, rats. I was hoping Poppy was already pregnant. Maybe this time. I have faith in Manu.
I say “rats”, too. Never met anyone else who did. Pleased ta meetcha!
this is a lovely barn with such cathedral like light! Cheers!
That is a beautiful old barn.
Hi Celi, although I love the shots of and comments about the barns…and agree with all of them…the thing that got me was your book recommendation of Heft. Checked my library and just checked out an ebook of the same title. I also read Plainsong, which you gave rave reviews. Much love, your citygirl friend learning to be a countrygirl friend, Gayle
Read the book first if you already haven’t. It’s one of my all time favorite books by Colleen McCollough.
I read it years and years ago – c
Reassuring is the word that came into my head as I looked at the barn. Practical, useful, comfortable. We didn’t have a barn. We had an old dairy, and our neighbours had a hay shed. My Dad worked in big old country garages. These old places are so easy to feel at peace in.
Ah, but Boo looks up.
west barn is a cathedral
That is a warm and welcoming barn. It looks odd to see your “hands” in the photo (the gloves) positioned just so.