Pennsylvania Barns

Isn't it crazy how you can live somewhere your whole life and see things everyday, but never really appreciate the beauty in those things until you leave and then return? I discovered this during my recent weekend trip up to see my Mom and Dad in Coopersburg (about an hour outside of Philadelphia), Pennsylvania. I rediscovered the beauty of barns.


When I go home to visit, we usually attend the little church in Limeport that my family attended when we were growing up. It is also the church where I got married almost 11 years ago. On the short drive between my parents' house and the church, we pass 4 different barns.


The first barn is pretty cool. It is painted with an ad for Ceresota Flour. I just love the look of it.


Barn number two is a typical Pennsylvania Dutch style barn, complete with "hex" signs. I had my husband pull over on the side of the road to get a picture of this barn. As I was taking shots of the barn, an older gentleman was walking down the side of the road and told me I could pull into the driveway to get a better shot. It turned out it was his barn. He invited us into his very charming little farm house to meet his lovely wife and show us the model of the barn that a friend had built for him.




I thought it was great that I had never met this couple before, but it turned out that they were the parents of someone we had gone to high school with. What a small world. They were such a charming couple and just beaming with pride about their barn. I asked if I could take a photo of his outhouse on the way out.


Barn number three is another Pennsylvania Dutch style barn that is very similar to the second barn. It was just a short distance down the road from the last barn.



Barn number four is a barn that is right down the street from my parents' house. I took this photo from inside the car as we were driving by because quite honestly, I had forgotten there was a barn there. Where did all of these barns come from? I couldn't believe that they were there the entire time I was growing up and I just never really saw them before.


Barn number five is the most special of all. This is the barn that was converted into a house many, many years ago and where I spent the first 25 years of my life. It is a house where at one time eight of us lived and where now just my two parents live. Hours of playing, watching TV and riding bikes. Dogs and cats that lived and died there. Years of homework and studying. Climbing trees and crunching through leaves. Laughter, snowstorms, birthdays, graduations and Christmas mornings. These walls contain lots of happy memories.


Maybe that's why I love barns so much....