Walkabout: Churches

While William was at his speech therapy day camp, I decided to grab my camera and take some photos of my walk-about. Delaware is such a picturesque town that it didn't take long to fill my camera with 80 captures. Here are a few of the churches.

The spire of The Delaware First Presbyterian Church

I loved the doorway to the Christian Scientist reading room

St Peter's Episcopal Church had a lovely meditation garden that led to the chapel

Many of the churches had stakes outside that said "May Peace Prosper Here" in English and three other languages.

The red door is one of the doorways of Zion United Church of Christ.

The stained glass is part of the First Baptist Church.

The big stained glass window at the First Baptist Church

Wait . . . Time to Myself?!

William is in speech therapy camp for the next few weeks in Delaware, OH, which is about 30 min from Mayberry. The sessions last 2 hours, which means that twice a week I get two hours to myself (!) The first time I dropped him off, I sat in my car for about 5 minutes and literally didn't know what to do, it had been so long since I was on my own.

Delaware is delightful. It's one of those towns that when you open your copy of "Country Living," the article starts something like "When Bob and Lucy Luckypants found their charming 120 year old brick colonial in Delaware, OH . ." It's blocks and blocks of beautiful old homes, a downtown that has maintained it's retro charm, antiques stores, cafes with good food, and Crossroads Music, in which Eric Clapton (yes, god lives in Columbus, Ohio) has been spotted. Oh, and it's home to Ohio Wesleyan University, which is about as picturesque and top-notch as a university can be. Old homes, retro downtown with tons of antiques, college town . . . the perfect combo.

Today I'm hanging in Beehive Bookstore, a great little bookstore with an outstanding selection, good coffee and cappy, free wifi, and lots of comfy chairs for reading. Oh, and this really cool mural on the back entrance.

The time goes by Really quickly, then it's back home to laundry, yard sale preparations, and the general work of being a mom. But what a nice way to spend my little bit of free time!

Groovy Little Town

I went to Yellow Springs, OH today with eldest daughter, William, and eldest daughter's friend Lydia. Yellow Springs is possibly the grooviest town in Ohio with lots of import shops, organic cafes, galleries, and just that artsy, hippie vibe that goes with a tiny college town (the Extremely Liberal Antioch College is located here.

Traveling companions Kendall, Lydia, and Will

We had a great day. We started at the Sunrise Cafe where all food is organic, made from scratch (but they do, thank the lord, have Diet Coke), and yummy. I had a portobello, spinach, and fontina cheese omelet with more portobello mushrooms than I have ever seen in one place in my life.

They have two really cool walls of cups at the entrance.

Then we shopped import shops and just walked around the town. And it's such a Cool town. I've wanted to live there for Years.





You know those tress that you see on the internet that people have crocheted and decorated? They are EVERYWHERE in Yellow Springs.





The town is so colorful. This bench is clay over concrete.




Flowers are everywhere. This garden is in front of an artist's co-op store.

The Village of Yellow Springs is a wonderful place to visit if you happen to be near Dayton or Xenia, OH. If you have the chance to visit, don't pass it up. You'll be blissed out that you went!

The Color Red

The C+C Photography assignment this week was to tell a story with a color. There were all sorts of parts to the assignment, like using the chosen color's complementary color in a photo, do something blurry, use lessons from the Perspective assignment.

Can you guess my color? It's not yellow (though that's what I started with)?

At first, I wanted to tell a story about a toddler at play. Will and I went into the yard, then we went exploring .

The yard wasn't really doing it for me, though. So I loaded Will, Kendall, and myself up into the car and we took a road trip. And I shot rural Ohio.

Pottersville Bridge, Early 1900's

Near Mingo, OH

Using some layers

And finally, my favorite photo

At first, I thought I was doomed with this assignment. I took photo after photo and couldn't seem to get anything right. MANY photos were deleted. Once I decided that a change of perspective was what I needed, it all came together. Harrah for road trips!