Abandoned!

Last year while visiting western Pennsylvania, I couldn’t help but notice the many farms that had been abandoned. Dairy farms were no longer in operation. Many had been owned by Amish families. The custom is to pass down the farm to the next generation, but the next generation has lost interest and moved or left the area. When I pass abandoned houses on farmland here, I often wonder if these houses stand empty for the same reason—children have moved away and no longer have interest in farming or there is just no one to pass the land down to.

Today, wildflowers have taken over the land. They bloom where fields once grew and they happily dot the landscape like something out of a Monet painting.

Have you ever noticed that daisies really don’t have to search for significance? They have it—whether alone or in a group!

So while the wildflowers and weeds circle and threaten to take over lonely, empty houses, there are still reminders left behind of the families who once lived in these old clap-board weathered houses. Like this two-person rocker. I wonder how many hours were spent on this porch looking out over the family’s fields? What discussions took place here about the crops and how to get them to a market?

Downed limbs clutter the yards but at one time, I imagine this area was cleaned and trimmed with children running back and forth playing children’s games.

Colorful weeds and daisies fill the yards and fields. They sway and dance with the wind in the sunlight .

And they really do put on quite a show for everyone passing by.