Driving around Iceland, you can see many small churches on the hillsides, mountain slopes and next to farm buildings. On a visit to Iceland in August 2017, we saw this small church, Silfrastadakirkja, in northcentral Iceland.
The current Silfrastadakirkja Church was built in 1896, replacing the old church from 1842 that now is in Arbaejarsafn Museum in Reykjavik. According to a description I found of this church, this “new” church is thought to be one of the smallest if not the smallest church in Iceland. It is also octagonal, which is unusual. It sits next to a farm house. In the foreground is a hay field with hay bales wrapped in plastic to protect against moisture. A heavy fog hangs over the mountain behind the church.
Like many of the small churches in Iceland, Silfrastadakirkja is white with a red roof. Blue is also another popular color for church roofs. Despite the similarities, each Icelandic church has unique features. In addition to the old churches, there are several new ones built in contemporary designs.
Blueberries are worth getting soaked to the skin. My friend Pat invited me to pick blueberries with her at The Berry Patch in Cleveland, Missouri., early on the morning of the Fourth of July. It was fun, despite the rain.
My friend Pat invited me to pick blueberries with her on July 4th at The Berry Patch, in Cleveland, Missouri, which is about 20 minutes from where we live. I’d heard about the farm years ago, but had never visited so I was glad for the invitation.
The forecast called for rain, but we decided to go anyway. Rain started as we drove, but optimistically we continued, thinking that at least we’d have the place to ourselves. Wrong. There were about fifty cars parked there when we arrived at 7:25 a.m. The farm opens at 7 a.m. For some, picking blueberries on Independence Day is a tradition. Since blueberries are only available for a few months — several types of blueberries are planted to stretch out the season — July 4th is a good reminder to get to the farm. You can rush home with your blueberries to add them to a red white and blue dessert. Pat said that because of the rain, the crowd was actually quite thin. When it’s sunny, you have a lot more competition for blueberries. There are many bushes, however. The Berry Patch is the largest berry farm in Missouri. There are 30 acres of blueberry bushes and four acres of blackberry bushes. A store sells jams, syrups and baked goods, and there is a playground area for kids, and picnic tables for picnic lunches.
Thunder crashed when we got out of the car, but fortunately we didn’t hear much thunder or see lightning afterward. It did rain a lot, though. After a while, you forget the rain as you pick pick pick those blueberries.
The Berry Patch provides white buckets with a plastic bag liner. They provide twine so that you can attach the bucket to your waist so you have two free hands to pick. After about two hours of picking, I picked almost six pounds and Pat almost nine pounds. She had two buckets. I bought some blueberry jam and blueberry syrup, too.
As we climbed into the car, we were soaked to the skin, but I was so glad we ignored the weather report. I hope to make blueberry picking a July 4th tradition. I may even go again this summer to replenish my supply. I’ve already eaten two cups of blueberries today.
My friend Lynn and I took our cameras to a couple of Missouri farms that sell pumpkins, apples and other goods, offer hay rides and let children pet animals. The weather was beautiful, and hopefully we haven’t seen the last of the summer-like days before winter hits.
Ripe Red apples are ready to be picked.
“Old Farm Wagon in a Hay Field” by Catherine Sherman
The Red Barn Farm in Weston, Missouri, offers a variety of farm goods for sale as well as activities for families, and is a place for receptions, church and school picnics and weddings.
This goat hopes I can read the sign at Red Barn Farm: Goat Feeding Station. Lucky for her, there were several children who didn’t even need a sign to recognize a goat in need of a treat.
Choose a pumpkin at Red Barn Farm!
The Farmer’s House Market near Weston, Missouri, sells locally grown and produced “farm to table” products such as vegetables, fruit, honey, cheese and farm and home related items. It’s a working farm where children, youth and young adults with developmental disabilities can live, work, play and grow.
A beautiful palomino horse stands on a hill against a bright blue sky at Red Barn Farm.
A scarecrow welcomes visitors to the apple orchard at Red Barn Farm.
Mini white pumpkins and other produce are for sale at The Farmer’s House in Weston, Missouri.
Bride and Groom scarecrows enjoy a beautiful autumn day at Red Barn Farm in Weston, Missouri.
"Abraham Lincoln" visits Old Cowtown Museum in Wichita, Kansas, to celebrate Independence Day. Lincoln visited Kansas in 1859, before he was elected president. Tom Leahy, a 4th grade teacher in Conway Springs, Kansas, portrayed Lincoln. See his comment below.
A few decades ago, when I was a Girl Scout I spent a week during a couple of summers as a tour guide at a living history museum called Old Cowtown in Wichita, Kansas. There were only a few buildings in those days, and it was hot and dusty, but I loved it!
This past weekend, I returned with my family to experience it as a tourist. Old Cowtown Museum has grown and become even more of an Old West experience. Now, instead of Girl Scouts, there are professional costumed re-enactors and guides. The buildings are almost all authentic from the late 1800s and show what a midwestern cattle town was like. The buildings are also now air-conditioned….so you can re-live the past more comfortably.
Special events are planned throughout the year. This past weekend, the museum celebrated Independence Day 1870s style. “Abraham Lincoln” visited. Of course, he’s an anachronism, but he did visit Kansas once before he was elected president. Brass bands played, there was an old-style baseball game — Lincoln played third base, gun fights between cowboys and ranchers, dance hall girls, pie-eating contests, watermelon spitting, a bucket brigade and wagon rides. My nephews are champion pie-eaters. We drank sarsaparilla (root beer) in the saloon.
We visited a homestead and saw a half-day-old calf in the barn. The mother wasn’t too happy with our interest in her baby. I never knew a moo could sound so threatening. Every time I tried to focus my camera on the calf, the mother tried to head butt me. Fortunately, the rail was in the way.
In the grand finale, a couple of cow pokes placed two anvils together and blasted the top one with dynamite in the anvil shoot, which was one old-time way to celebrate before fireworks were available. People do love to blow up things to celebrate!
There were so many activities, we didn’t get a chance to visit all of the buildings, including the Munger House, which was the home of Darius Munger, Wichita’s founder. I was the tour guide for the Munger House as a Girl Scout, so now I have to return to Cowtown just to re-live my old guiding days. New since my tour days is the home of the Marshall Murdock, who vigorously promoted the town through his newspaper. There are dozens of buildings, including two churches, a school house, many stores and professional buildings, a train depot, saloon and homes.
To see more of the experience, see my YouTube slide show below, which shows a lot of the action. You can also click on Old Cowtown Museum. Check out the map of the town on the Cowtown website.
There are tens of millions of sheep in Australia and New Zealand, but this is as close as I got to any of them. These sheep are grazing at Port Arthur Historic Site, the location of a 19th century penal colony in Tasmania, Australia.
Sheep are probably more common in Australia than kangaroos, but on a recent visit there I never got close enough to hear so much as a bleat. I wanted to see a sheep shearing (as seen on “The Thorn Birds”). I wanted a picturesque mob of sheep to flood out onto the quaint road, you know, the usual tourist adventures. I should have just looked in my own neighborhood. (There’s a hilarious video about a movie starring sheep at the bottom of this post as a reward for traveling on my nostalgia trip.)
Horses on the ranch down the street from me.
A friend, Evan J., told me about a sheep shearing he participated in recently at a farm not too far away from me. In six months, the sheep will need another hair cut. Only a tornado is going to keep me away.
Farmers are dedicated, determined and dazzling. I’m in awe of what they accomplish and remember the hard work of my grandparents’ farm. It’s easy to take farm fields and pastures for granted, until the raw timbers of subdivisions take their places. I live in a suburb on the edge of the Kansas City metropolitan area, near horses and soybean fields. I’m always afraid I’ll find a CVS pharmacy staked out in the horse pasture. (Our neighborhood has already fought a CVS.) One nearby farm was just sold off and leveled last year. Asphalt streets curve around empty lots where a barn surrounded by hay bales once stood. My own yard was once part of a forest that is now a golf course, so I can’t say I haven’t contributed to the sprawl.
This old barn and soybean field won't be here long. It's prime real estate, surrounded by upscale subdivisions and shopping centers. Only the economic downturn is keeping development at bay.
People can satisfy a little of their farm curiosity in our county with a visit to Deanna Rose Farm, a city park with farm animals and historic rural buildings. Hopefully, small family farms don’t become novelty items that are remembered only in parks.
I’ve been following the blog of Paula, who raises sheep and cattle and does just about everything else on her organic farm in Devon, England. Here’s her post on lambing. Lambing — It’s Started. Her blog has great photos, too!
Closer to home, Natalya of Pinwheel Farm writes about the joys and sorrows of raising sheep. You can find “Girls at War” and “Memorable Shearing Day, two of her posts on sheep, at Pinwheel Farm.
I watched the movie “Black Sheep” on the plane trip from New Zealand. It’s so hilariously Kiwi. Sort of cheesy, but in a good way. The special effects reminded me of those in “Dr. Who,” the ones with Tom Baker, my favorite doctor. Here’s the imdb.com link, including videos, about the movie Black Sheep. Below is the video of the movie trailer. The video is over the top, but there’s a lot of wry Kiwi wit in the movie. For more Kiwi wit and news, check out Kiwibloke on my blogroll.
Catherine Sherman 