i is for impressions

a few images and impressions from our weekend. september is proving to be a most interesting month! friday evening f and I set off for southeastern ohio to meet friends for a weekend of friendship and fun. last spring s & p successfully bid on a weekend at the stratton house in flushing during a fundraiser for the olney school. s & p, generous to their very core, invited an interesting assortment of friends. we were blessed to be among the chosen.

the drive down was intense. most of the trip involved traveling on dark windy, unfamiliar country roads in the rain and fog. but we arrived safe and sound and with friends and food awaiting our arrival, whatever road worries we had instantly evaporated.

saturday started off as friday ended -- foggy and wet but the weather did nothing to interfere with our itinerary. after breakfast we headed "downtown" for our appointment with john mattox, the curator of the underground railroad museum. the introduction to the museum and it's collection that mr. mattox provided was incredibly interesting. john's knowledge and commitment to sharing this inconceivable* chapter in u.s. history is most important. although small, the museum's collection is simply incredible - it is jammed packed with artifacts, documents, and memorabilia - but everything is well organized and quite simply irrestistible to the curious soul.

by saturday afternoon the rain and fog evaporated and the temperatures warm enough to dry out the terrain enough for a walk in the woods. after lunch we headed out to dysart woods "the largest known (51 acres) of unglaciated primeval oak forest in Southeastern Ohio. The virgin forest, with specimens 300-400 years old, is a National Natural Landmark and botanical research laboratory of Ohio University and the Eastern Campus." unfortunately while I was at the underground railroad museum my camera went on the fritz, I was not able to capture any images from our walk in the woods. (I'm happy to report my camera started working again sunday morning - however, I did get the same strange error message so right after this post goes up, I'm taking the camera to the shop for diagnostic inquiry)

among our activities on sunday were

an early morning walk to the village of flushing (2000 population 900)

a visit to see the work of a local chainsaw artist named ed

setting up the always desirable group portrait,

and a stop at the fiesta factory store in newell, west virginia on our ride back home.

yesterday immediately after downloading my photos and posting a comment in response to all the wonderful comments on the h is for happy post, an immense storm named ike hit - bringing down many trees and our electricity. this morning our power is back on, but according to the radio, there are thousands of households in the cleveland area still without power. of course the damage and destruction that ike has caused here is infinitesimal compared to the death and devastation ike instigated and induced elsewhere.

* slavery is inconceivable to most people today. fortunately to was also inconceivable to many men and women during the early stages of the country's history (slavery was legal from 1654 to 1865) - and with their belief and the actions their beliefs initiated, the practice of slavery finally was ended. over 140 years after slavery was abolished in the united states, many believe that the country is still healing from the injuries of this form of inhumanity.