Amish land, through the car window

My husband and I took a drive to nearby Quarryville, PA this past Saturday to stock up on some supplies. We needed bird seed, flannel-lined jeans, and a change of scenery. I had wanted to stay home and get the house cleaned in order to begin decorating for the holidays, but I’d just gotten a new camera and lens and I wanted to try them out. And my husband was planning on driving for the first time since his surgery in early October, so this was a win-win.

All of the photos in this post were taken through the car window. It’s not easy getting a good shot from a moving vehicle, and I’m warning you that these aren’t the best . . . but it’s not going to stop me from sharing them.

 

 

Eden is that old-fashioned house we dwell in every day
Without suspecting our abode until we drive away.
~Emily Dickinson

 

No man is born into the world whose work
Is not born with him; there is always work
And tools to work withal, for those who will....
~James Russell Lowell

 

 

 

 

For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food, for love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

 

 

For me the diamond dawns are set
In rings of beauty,
And all my ways are dewy wet
With pleasant duty.
~John Townsend Trowbridge

 

 

God give me work, till my life shall end
And life, till my work is done.
~Epitaph of Winifred Holtby

 

 

An Amish Rug

As if a one-room schoolhouse were all we knew
And our clothes were black, our underclothes black,
Marriage a horse and buggy going to church
And the children silhouettes in a snowy field,

I bring you this patchwork like a smallholding
Where I served as the hired boy behind the harrow,
Its threads the colour of cantaloupe and cherry
Securing bay hales, corn cobs, tobacco leaves.

You may hang it on the wall, a cathedral window,
Or lay it out on the floor beside our bed
So that whenever we undress for sleep or love
We shall step over it as over a flowerbed.

Michael Longley

 

All in all, it was a good Saturday. Until tomorrow, my friends . . .