Spooky Old House

On a recent teaching trip to Greenville, NY, one of my missions was to find my aunts house - also in Greenville. There was a time in my life when I lived with my aunt; I have great memories of roaming and playing on the 173 acres surrounding the house. Greenville was and still is a very small town so it should've been easy but I'm also tapping into old brain cells. When I first saw this house, I thought hmmmmm... kinda looks like her house, but then again maybe not. It is abandoned, very run down and spooky looking. My aunts house also had a big front porch and barn off to the side.
My husband who had seen it in pictures and in person one time said no way is that your aunts house, but I remembered an old hitching post on the side of the house and a cemetary in back. So there you are - the hitching post

and an old shed. I love the wood on this. It would be great printed on fabric. The property is still beautiful with some great views.

And here is the cemetery on my aunts property. The tombstombs date back to the middle 1800s. The main family represented is the Rundle family, apparently the founders of Greenville and the biggest family at that time.

I remember an old slate wall surrounding it. Much of it is in good shape but some is falling down.

It was one of those days - a little overcast, cold, kind of eery out and what an amazing adventure walking through the tombstones.

And I do remember an old creaking gate which is still standing and still creaking!

John went over to the town hall while I was teaching, also knocked on doors and was able to get some history about it.

Some of the stones were knocked over but many were standing.

Very weathered, very interesting.

I wasn't thinking in terms of finding this so I didn't bring anything to do a rubbing.

This cemetary was very close to the homestead. You can see the house and how close they are to each other.

I also got some great pictures of the many slate walls and pieces of slate around the property.

What a great, spooky, eery, interesting adventure and walk down memory lane. I see a quilt in this.

PS - we found out the barn burned down and the original porch collapsed many years ago, still not bad for a 200 year old house!

YES!!!!!!!

From this
and this

to glorious this! Yes! Is there anything more exciting than these pretty little crocus popping their heads through the soil?

The first signs of spring.

And Daffodils, so sunny and happy - reminds me of a story of long ago when I taught Home Ec. I was in a new school in a beautiful classroom on the main floor. The one side of my room faced into a small courtyard. You could get to the courtyard by going through a window in my room or the room next door. I don't know if that was intentional or a faux pas on the part of the overall design - either way I loved it. I felt like the courtyard was mine and mine alone. Someone early on planted hundreds of Daffodil bulbs in that area and every spring, it was ablaze with color. One of my students would happily oblige me by climbing out the window to pick lots and lots of these lovely flowers and then back through the window with an armful of sunny Daffodils. It was quite the adventure and a break from classroom work. The flowers were always on my desk and many bouquets were delivered to my teacher friends throughout the building. Needless to say I was very popular in springtime!

Happy Spring everyone!