I Can See The Pines Are Dancing

On Saturday, Rob took me back to the mill in Yancyville as I'd been wanting to return with a tripod and get better photos than our previous visit. We took some shots outside and then climbed into the building.

The building is pretty unstable but with care and attention I managed to negotiate my way around and set up my camera. I was just getting into the mood when I heard Rob calling me so I looked out of the window to see him below and a hippie in a van stopped by the side of the road. The hairy dude was obviously causing issues about us trespassing but I'd hardly got any photos so I ignored them and headed up to another floor. 

The stairs are extremely dodgy and by the time I'd got to the top of the building, my conscience was getting the better of me and I felt guilty about leaving Rob to face the music. At another call from him, I stuck my head out of the window to immediately receive a loud comment, "You're taking an extreme imposition!" or something to that effect. I ducked back in and snapped a few more photos, sighed loudly, and very begrudgingly descended to speak to this obnoxious character.

He claimed to be the owner which was complete codswallop as he'd obviously come from the commune down the road, and started berating me loudly, all the time glaring ferociously at me. I took in his tatty clothes, braided hair, scruffy beard and beat up van and calmly asked for his name, explaining that I knew who owned the building and that there were no plans for salvaging the mill, and also no signs up warning off trespassers. He then asked me if I wanted a shovel to dig myself deeper. I nearly spluttered but kept my calm and asked again for his name which he declined to give. I'd had enough by now so I said we were leaving but would return unless we saw signs posted. I was pretty annoyed as I had barely started taking photos so will need to return in a few weeks but we'll leave the car around the corner.

 Feeling miffed we drove off to console ourselves with a cone from the local ice cream parlor but that was shut so we headed back to Gordonsville.

We saw these wonderful old Chryslers outside a custom car shop and stopped to have a look. And then back into Gordonsville where we saw we'd get our ice cream after all at the Tastee Freez.

Here's Quackster enjoying some of mine.

Back at the house Kota was waiting for us in front of the fire. Rob decided to get out his old train set so it would run round the Christmas Tree.

Kota assisted and very soon it was chugging along merrily and puffing out smoke. It hadn't been run for nearly 10 years so Rob was ecstatic. We all enjoyed sitting and watching it.

All aboard with Quackster and friends!

The next morning I tired of sitting in a hot house so went for a walk through the fields and along the railway track. Since the sunlight was so strong I thought I'd create some bokeh images with my camera. 

I only walked a couple of miles and then returned to the house. I'd also been out earlier and taken photos of Jim's pine trees. A guy had been knocking on doors wanting to chop down peoples' trees and worried that Jim would sell his, i took some photos to remember them by.

It started getting dark and wanting to make a few phone calls which I couldn't do from the house, I drove down in to the village and managed to snap some shots of the lights while spending the whole time on the phone. Certainly stopped me worrying about the cold since it was freezing outside.

And so another long weekend passed by far too quickly and before I knew it I was driving off into a cold Monday morning in a warm car which Rob had started up for me, and leaving my boys behind for another week. Bye Rob, Bye Kota, Bye Quackster!