I don’t know what it is exactly that I love about old barns considering I am a card carrying member of the city girl club. Perhaps it’s because they somehow harken back to earlier or simpler times and I’m sure many a farmer would argue with me about anything being simple when it comes to farming. Barns remind me of when there were bigger open spaces of land and we hadn’t spread out to build on every piece of land an architect could blueprint a development or strip mall onto.
I like seeing a farm surrounded by fields of something that one day we will be eating or will be fed to something we will be eating. Ummm…that last bit sounded a bit strange but you get the idea there. When I see a huge plot of land either fallow or still growing something with a big sign in it saying it is for sale I don’t know if I should feel sad or not. Is the farmer just retiring or has farming become less profitable and selling the land would be better? When I see a barn like this that is no longer used my imagination wanders off creating it’s own scenarios of what it was once like when new; what was that farm, farmer and area like.
Do you ever feel like an old barn surrounded by more things encroaching upon you? Sometimes life can be like that. New technology, the demands of jobs and families, bills, a homework assignment; this or that thing that is demanding your attention – they seem to surround us at time. Hopefully though we all continue to stand even if we might lean a bit to one side, perhaps have a few boards missing and doors don’t quite operate as well as they used to…but still standing!
Images by T.Dashfield Photography 
Terri, I know just what you mean about the time in which there were bigger open spaces around – my childhood memories of the area around Bristol is very much along those lines. And I spent time in Africa and Arabia too – where open spaces were (and are) the order of the day! And yes, maybe I do feel like an old barn that’s being encroached upon – but I’m doing my best to attain a simple life, which is perhaps my way of saying no to the encroachment! Adrian
Thank you for commenting, Adrian. Sometimes I feel modernization isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Parts of it are important but sometimes it’s good to just look at the scenery without interference from what we have built.
Yes, modernization is unstoppable I guess, but I don’t think it can always be equated with progress, or with increase in quality of life. I too like scenery without interference – but here in the small and overcrowded UK interference is all around. Which is why I’m often out on the plain, simple and relatively undisturbed Somerset Levels. Good to talk to you, Terri! Adrian
It seems one must go further and further out to find open space today. When we were in the U.K. I absolutely loved some of the areas around Exeter. Good to talk to you, Adrian.
Living in suburbia, there is a mystique to wide open places. I love being out west and driving through open range…nothing particular to see…just the open range and the occasional cattle.
Have we been boxed up in our subdivisions too long? I love wide open spaces but would hate to have to keep up that lawn 😉
Yeah…We looked at a house back when we last bought and you mowed a small section and then a local farmer would come twice a season and hay the rest.
As I sit here in the middle of farm country, I have yet to take a photo of a barn. There’s either no place to pull over, I’m in a hurry, the light isn’t good, etc., etc. But I am determined, and there WILL be barn photos in my future lol. Pls post more barn photos for inspiration 🙂
I will try but they are hard to find sometimes and like you sometimes in places where I can’t get to them safely 🙂
I’m always looking for old barns and old buildings. I’m always fascinated by what their stories are. I think that’s why I like old graveyards too. The stories I will never know.
Graveyards are fascinating too – they have so many stories to tell.
Barns are cool. They are good looking and functional, two things that have become all too allusive to a lot of designers and architects. Love the photo.
Thanks 🙂 And they were made at a time to last!
I know you have a thing for barns – and I completely understand their charm
Why I do I don’t know. Guess it’s because I’m a city girl and they’re like a different world to me.
Not many barns around here in the NL..I think I will fancy to take their images when seeing the barns 🙂
But you have windmills don’t you?
Yes 🙂 I should that pictures of windmills more often 😀
I’d love to see that since we don’t have any of those here.
Yes, you have captured how my body feels now that I am over 65. I’ve got that old barn lean and missing boards down pat. Sigh!
BUT we are still standing!!! That is most important 🙂
I think for me it is the story. When I see an old barn like that I just imagine the story and what that barn has seen in its 100+ years. Would be interesting if it could tell you. Love that picture
Thanks…I think along the same lines 🙂