Red Barn, Central Pennsylvania

It was Saturday, and we had errands to run in town. It was quite chilly and overcast in the morning, with freezing fog. So without any firm agenda to adhere to, we waited until noon to begin our errands. We took our chairs and books along, as we anticipated that conditions would clear up and the day would turn nice by sometime in the afternoon.

And indeed, it did! By the time we accomplished our last item, the skies were turning blue and it was warming up. We drove a back road home, knowing we would try to find somewhere nice to stop and enjoy the day. It was still hunting season, with a lot of hunters in the woods, so we stayed out of the gamelands, for safety's sake.

The State College area has many very nice parks, but I admit I have only explored a minority of them. When I was house hunting back in 2004, I almost bought a house on Tadpole Road. Across the road from that house is a pretty little park called Fairbrook Park, 29 acres in size. We had been there only a handful of times, and my husband suggested we go back to have a look around. And so we did.

What a treat! I am not sure I knew before that there is more to the little park than just the main parking lot area and some green fields along the road. No, there is MUCH more than that, including a lovely little trail that winds up through the woods and along farming fields, with many strategically placed benches for sitting and enjoying the views.

The light was just gorgeous, and I was a fiend with the camera, which I had brought along "just in case." Actually, it was more than that: the light was unbelievably nice, and it was a great day for monochrome photography. The first shot I took was of a bench and trees against that beautiful light. (You can see that one in the extra photos area.)

And then we took our chairs and our books and walked out into the big sunny farm fields. It had a good feeling: spacious and sunny and warm and open. I spied a farm across the road, with a red barn and a red truck. It just seemed so quintessentially "country" that I couldn't resist some zoomed shots, one of which is provided above.

And so it was that we seized the day! I was most delighted, I think, to go back to a place that I thought I knew, and to find that it was so much more than what I remembered.

I think my favorite parts were the pretty little trail and the big, wide-open views of the central Pennsylvania farm country that is my home, and that I love so much. I looked out upon it all with great pleasure and a feeling of deep satisfaction, and it seemed to me like a field of dreams.

The tune to accompany these rural images has to be a song about country. John Mellencamp, a fierce advocate for the American farmer, has some good ones, and so here is a favorite: Country Gentleman. It is from the 1989 album Big Daddy, which is a real winner; every song on it is good, and I recommend it.