Morning and Breakfast in the Virginias

I woke up earlier than I planned the morning after Thanksgiving. I tried to go back to sleep, but the light coming through my bedroom window and the views beyond it made it hard to shut my eyes...so I decided to get up and get on with it. Dad and I were the only two guests in the house this particular evening, so I wandered a bit and took photos of the light and slightly outdated decor. Seriously, if I could I would buy this house and live in it forever. I'd make a few changes to paint decor and the like, but it's got a pretty good layout and feel to it.

Outside there was still a light frost on the grass and my car. And, in the instance of my car, also a fair helping of bird crap. Note to self: do not park under a tree in the country.

To one side of the house were an old shed and barn, both of which had seen slightly better days. I think there's a word for photographs featuring buildings in various stages of decay. The following photographs could, I would think, belong to such an oeuvre.

What I always find curious about barns like this, is just what the order was to its decay. Was it already filled with a million different kinds of junk and then one of its walls fell down? Or did one of its walls fall down and folks thought, 'well we might as well throw some junk in that there hole'? I'm guessing the former, but you never know. I also wonder at just what moment a barn went from functioning structure to something abandoned and unkept. It is a conscious choice? A simple matter of finances or change of ownership or circumstance? You can drive around any rural area and come across so many barns and even houses with this total feeling of neglect, and yet they are still standing, falling apart one board, one roof shingle, at a time.

After my house and barn tour I decided to go on a larger adventure, which ultimately led to breakfast at Mountain View Diner, where I ordered myself a full breakfast of two fried eggs, sausage links, toast and grits. Funny thing, there really wasn't a mountain view to speak of nor would the mountains that could potentially be seen resemble the mountains their website features. The breakfast was satisfying and met my basic standards for diner fare, but I wasn't terribly wowed.

A nice start to the day.