OLD HOME ON BLUE LICK ROAD

Home on Blue Lick Road

Two rooms across and a back attachment. Plain, simple and efficient. Today old, small country homes similar to this Blue Lick house dot the landscape in central Kentucky. 

They are one of my favorite types of homes. Usually the old tin roofs are still in use on them. A shed porch has always provided a sittin' area to feel the breeze and hear the rustle of the leaves. I think of the reasonably priced wood that was bought at local saw mills for the family to build their home using only hammers, nails, and a hand-saw. 

 Most of these homes are called Box houses as they use box construction methods to build them.Today, some folks purchase Box houses to restore. Many other similar homes are left to slowly decay.

I feel the Blue Lick Road home and others like it reflect the heart and soul of the hard working folks of the late 1800s and early 1900s. A time when these economy house types were first built on Kentucky land. Around the 1930s or so the Box  building tradition began to disappear.

BIRTHDAY PUMPKINS

Pumpkins, butternut squash, and Cushow squash (striped) on a wagon bed. 

A southern "sittin" porch is seen in the background

My father was born on Halloween. All through my years of living at my childhood home and later living away I have placed pumpkins outside on his birthday to celebrate. He died in 1991 but I still carry on my tradition of setting out pumpkins. I know folks set out pumpkins for Halloween and that makes neighborhoods look very festive. I think my pumpkins add a touch to that look. My father would have liked this continuation of festive Halloween pumpkins for his birthday.

This past weekend I discovered a farmer's wife standing by a farm wagon parked in the street at a suburban yard sale selling squash and pumpkins. She told me that she had hauled the produce from her farm. Pumpkins were either one dollar or two dollars.The squash was priced in the same range. She mentioned that the pumpkins were not the same size that they usually are due to the summer drought. I thought they were just the right size.

I dug down in my small stash of cash and found six dollars to buy two butternut squash and three pumpkins. It was a beautiful sunny day.The woman and I discovered we had a similar interest, photography. This led to a lengthy conversation. 

Soon I was pulling into my drive. My mind was full of my father. Then I noticed the exact place I was going to put his pumpkins. On the chair that I found beside the road about a month ago. There I could view them every time I pulled into my drive. An early Happy Birthday to you Dad!

BEATRICE'S AFRICAN-AMERICAN YARD SHOW GARDEN

BEATRICE'S FRONT YARD SHOW GARDEN

Early last spring I spotted a garden filled with decorative elements that had a certain  type of folk quality.  

Beatrice working in her garden

A woman was working around the garden so I  stopped my truck.  We introduced ourselves to each other.  Her name is Bernice Logan, a sweet, lovely lady that lives in Garrard County, Kentucky. I was a stranger to her yet when I asked if I could photograph her and her garden -- she was glad to do so. 

A yellow painted rock with flowers

She walked with me around her garden pointing out certain decorative elements and mentioned where she got them. It was early spring, green plant life was poking out of the soil -- the only blooms were those of daffodils.  


Many gardeners  design their gardens unaware that their designs are intuitive -- a  result of traditions ingrained from long-past garden influences. 


As Ms Logan showed me the various parts of her garden I got the distinct feeling I was looking at remnants of an African-American garden tradition. This tradition is described by garden researchers as a yard show. 

A semi-circular rock painted by her children's grandmother 
-- reflecting their sports interests

Her garden filled her entire small front yard. Following are the features that could qualify her garden as an African-American yard show

-- Circularity appeared as a strong visual in the overall design. Circles around trees, circular rocks, tire, cauldron.

-- Overall it has a non-linear design -- more of a thoughtful process of,  "I think it would look good right there." 


-- Material elements were a complexity of  items. There was an abundance of statuary animals, a tire, a hanging iron cauldron, lights,  garden edgings,  bricks, and several others elements.  


-- Elements reflecting nature. Rocks both painted and non-painted, a nest, and a hunk  of a tree root arranged loosely from a cauldron tripod, plantings, decorated tree stumps. 


-- Light and/or reflective materials. Christmas lights surrounding the porch used year round. Also small ground hugging solar lights. 

A circular garden bed containing animal figures and rocks surrounded by  circular brick edging -- a young tree in the center

The elements described above in Ms Logan's garden, could have been found in typical traditions from her cultural past. 

Nodding yellow daffodils  growing up through a young tree 
containing an abandoned nest -- found and placed there by Beatrice.

A yard show is a compilation of elements plus more. Yard show gardens can be either spare or abundant in material items. Most yard show gardens seem to be located in the front yard.

A circular turtle shell on the turtle figure placed 
on the side of a circular old black tire.  

Certain meanings that were mysterious and spirtual were part of the yard show history.  Examples of some meanings are that of a circle element, such as a tire, which relates to circles of the spirit, bottle trees to capture bad spirits, and plantings around the house of protective herbs.

Her porch Christmas lights -- part of the front yard show 

As gardeners in general, we are usually unaware of some of the traditions that we put in our gardens. As we put decades or even centuries between us and our inherited gardening traditions we become unaware how they  influence us as we lay out our space. Look at how you design  -- compare it to other gardens in your area and identify the similarities. Perhaps these similarities are your  intuitively designed traditions. Intuitive design can tell us about traditional stories from our past.  

A circular caldron with circular birdfeeder, 
hanging circular teapot and natural root that tops it off.. 

African Amercan yard shows are a facinating topic. I would heartily recommend Places of the Spirt for its fabulous yard show photos. Also, two other books that are well researched on this subject are listed below. 

As planting time descends on us once again, look around your neighborhood for  traditions that abound in many of their gardens.

References:

1, Keep Your Head To The Sky: Interpreting African Home Ground
Edited by Grey Gunder


2. Places for the Spirit: Traditional African American Gardens
Vaughn Sills  (Photographs and text)


3. African-American Gardens and Yards in the Rural South 
Richard Westmacott

HISTORIC UNINCORPORATED COMMUNITY -- KIRKSVILLE, KENTUCKY

MAIN STREET -- KIRKSVILLE, KENTUCKY

Unincorporated Kentucky communities are places that are rooted in tradition and/or history. . They are places where the residents know the boundaries. They have no formally organized government. 


Kirksville is an unincorporated place that is surrounded by historic farms. Older homes along the curving main street reflect a rich texture of country living.


I could not find  population statistics for the community and maybe that is the way it should be. Everybody knows each other and everybody counts so there is no need for  official data..

WHERE HAVE ALL THE SCARECROWS GONE -- LONG TIME PASSING

HUMOROUS SCARECROW THAT HAS LOST HIS PANTS
CORN PATCH, ROCKCASTLE, COUNTY, KENTUCKY

Last year, in conjunction with gardens, I posted about homemade scarecrows. I have a thing about scarecrows -- they are so traditional for our gardens and best of all I have sweet memories of my my dad making homemade scarecrows.


In the last two years I have only found two homemade scarecrows. Yesterday made number three.


I noticed number three standing in a corn patch a couple miles from my home. He was quite humorous and I believe embarrassed as he stood there with no pants. This morning I woke up and went to the corn patch and snapped the above photo. It was taken from a distance so it is not as sharp as I like my photos to be. But, it's a scarecrow, a rare commodity around these parts. 


My question is -- have folks given up this wonderful artful tradition? 


Below are the two scarecrows that I have found in this area in the last couple years. I search personally for them when I am out and about. I also ask locals if they know of any and usually get a friendly smile saying -- nope haven't seen any lately. 

HOMEMADE FARMER SCARECROW
MADISON COUNTY, KENTUCKY

ARTISTIC RENDITION OF A WOMAN GARDENER SCARECROW
BEREA, KENTUCKY -- COMMUNITY GARDEN

I hope that this scarecrow tradition is not disappearing from our landscape. I don't want to sing my take-off of Pete Seeger's song -- "Where have all the scarecrows gone, Long time ago."

AFRICAN-AMERICAN INFLUENCED QUILT

 African-American influenced quilt

Sometimes we run into something that speaks to us. This was the case about six months ago as I haunted my favorite second-hand store.  Draped over a chair, rather rumpled, was a quilt that I could see was hand-tied. I am not a big fan of hand-tied quilts but I could not resist the pleasure of opening it up to have a look. 


Now I knew what I was looking at  (a quilt) but I really wasn't seeing it. My gut was to buy it. And I did. 

Embroidery stitches with hands

Ever so often I would look at it asking myself questions about its configurations. I knew that it was made in the era of about 1920s to 1950s from the wool and cotton material and the hand-tying. I knew that is was all hand stitched. I knew that it had strips sewn together. But what really got me was the pattern and the hands embroidered on some of the squares. 

Then one day I opened it up and I really saw it. Its asymmetrical patterns jumped out at me. Research told me it was an African-American influenced quilt.

Asymmetrical zig-zag stitching and vertical strips

Since African-Americans first arrived on our shores they brought along their  ancestral textile designs and religious symbols that were soon incorporated into American quilts that they made for themselves  on the plantations. 


The symbols once had meanings that told stories  -- but over  successive generations of  family quilters they became lost. But, the symbols became traditional to future  family quilt makers  despite the missing stories. 

Hands or "mojos"

The tell-tale signs that told me this quilt was African American were: improvisation, multiple patterning, asymmetrical patterning, sewn strips, and symbols. 

According to Maude Southwell Wahlman author of Signs and Symbols: African Images in African-American Quilts, the symbols of red squares or hands are called "mojos" that represent protective charms in the African Kongo culture. So the hands on my quilt were protective charms but in which way? I guess that is part of the story that has been lost. 

I am thrilled to have this quilt as it represents cultural ways that have survived for generations. It also tells me that culturally, past customs and traditions are probably present in all of us. 

I recommend the following resources if you are interested in this subject. Ms Wahlman has done extensive research in this area and has compiled a collection of quilts and oral histories on African American quilts. 

RESOURCES:

Online article

UMKC -- Art Professor Maude Southwell Wahlman Uncovers Quilt Mysteries

Book 

Signs and Symbols: African Images in African-American Quilts. 

Maude Southwell Wahlman

LOVE IN THE WOODS

CLUSTER OF BEECH TREES ALONG A WOODED TRAIL DISPLAYING EVERLASTING LOVE

Along a creek trail near Berea College located in Kentucky, I counted a cluster of about twenty beech trees with carvings of hearts, initials and a few figures bored into the wood. The oldest carving was dated 1963. The latest dated carvings I could find were some in the mid 1980s.


The main theme of these carvings seemed to be undying love but I suppose with closer scrutiny one could unfold other meanings.


Now some of you might disagree with carving into a beautiful tree to profess one's feelings. This is not about agreeing or disagreeing, its about Arborglyphs. You might be saying what the heck is Arborglyphs? I know I did when I first discovered the word. 

CARVED BEECH TREE ALONG WOODED TRAIL NEAR BEREA COLLEGE 

Anborglyphs is the study of  culturally modified trees (CMT) -- those that have been carved by humans that give us a glimpse of a part of our culture. The Berea cluster of twenty or so trees probably has several cultural meanings. Let's look at some possibilities.

One is that  a nearby college full of young single students is located near the spot where I found the trees -- lots of opportunities to have multiple carvings of love symbols on the trees.


Secondly, why were all the symbols carved within that one particular cluster of trees when there was a whole woods to place their sentiments? 


The possible answer to the latter question is perhaps the trees acted as a "bulletin board" to all who traveled the trail. The beech trees sit tight against the trail. In other words, the trees could have conveyed to passing college students the sweethearts at their school. Of course this is all conjecture on my part  -- perhaps others would define the cultural context differently. 

CARVED BEECH TREE ALONG WOODED TRAIL NEAR BEREA COLLEGE 

Beech, aspen and birch have smooth barks for carving and are usually the types used for this tradition. Many people consider arborglyphs a form of folk art. 

CARVED BEECH TREE ALONG WOODED TRAIL NEAR BEREA COLLEGE 

In Northern Nevada and other parts of the United States immigrant sheepherders have given us a legacy of tree carvings since the late 1800s. The Arborglyphs are being studied for  clues as to the traditions of their culture. I've included some online resources if you would like more information on this interesting subject.

For now, for me, today, I will look at the Berea arborglyphs and wonder if they were in any way a part of a Valentine's Day custom? 

RESOURCES


The Woodland Archives: Interpretive Uses of Arborglyphs. Legacy magazine.

"Mike Lucy: My Favorite Herder:" Arborglyph Recording Project, Fremont National Forest, Oregon 1997. Carol Pedersen, PIT Volunteer.

Sheepherders of Northern Nevada, University of Nevada, Reno