Thursday, March 29, 2007

The Nightly Walk

All In The Family... Life in Christian County, Kentucky... The Rural Life...



Rural road with horse and buggy hazard signThe road where we've been walking

Isaac and I have been taking an evening walk whenever we can, and we find ourselves returning to the same little road nearly every time.

It's such a narrow, quiet road that it's like following a path through the woods -- and I suppose that it was a path once. We haven't yet seen a horse and buggy on the road despite the warning sign at our starting point, and we usually meet only one or two automobiles.

A Mennonite family lives along our route, but their place is hidden by the trees. Their buildings are newly-built because no one has ever lived there before. I think they moved here about a year ago.

Young redbud blooming A young redbud tree beside this country road
The cemetery that Isaac restored for his Eagle Scout project (see the links below) is out in the pasture along this road. We can see it from the road, but if we didn't know it was there, we'd never notice it.

We turn around at the point that the road changes from gravel to blacktop, but another Mennonite family lives farther down the road on the blacktop part. The wife runs a greenhouse, and she is one of the most gifted gardeners and landscapers I've ever known.

She doesn't advertise, but she does a lot of business, especially in the spring. Her prices are reasonable, she has a good selection of healthy plants and she always throws in something for free. Cars are always parked in front of the greenhouse with their trunks open, and you will probably see some horses and buggies tied to the hitching posts, too.

After walking the gravel part of this rustic country road a few times, we decided we'd pick up the many aluminum cans in its ditches and recycle them. We got most of them in a couple nights, and we are still finding one every now and then. They are mostly beer cans. Apparently the teenagers party on this road, or perhaps it is the hunters.

Tonight we started picking up some of the dozens of glass and plastic bottles in the ditches. We both filled our Wal-Mart sack in just a short distance. All of the glass is beer bottles, of course, and all of the plastic is soda bottles. We decided we would leave the paper litter since it will bio-degrade eventually.

This project will take a few weeks, but we hope to get that scenic little country road cleaned up.

I don't know the name of the plant below, so please tell me if you know it! It looks like it may turn into a vine? I saw it along the roadside at the base of a tree.

What is the name of this plant? What is the name of this plant?


Related posts:
Mid-March in the Kentucky Countryside
Eagle Project is Taking Shape
Eagle Project Begun
Peaceful Valley

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Picking up other people's litter is a very responsible, adult thing to do. My wife does it, but I mainly fume. I read a story, perhaps apocryphal, that a German told a visiting American who commented on the clean roadside that the roads were free of litter because "we love our country." I wish more Americans displayed their professed love a little more concetely.

Genevieve Netz said...

I don't understand how people can throw out their drink containers like that. My conscience would bother me greatly if I did that! In my opinion, the glass is the very worst of all because it can break and become dangerous to man, beast, and machine.

That is true about the Germans. They are pretty good about picking up litter (or just not littering!) In town, the little old ladies sweep the streets in front of their houses. I don't know if the young generation is conscientious about public neatness that way, but the older Germans certainly are.

Emily said...

Hello Genevieve, I spotted your Tree blog on the blogger homepage and was surprised when I clicked on it to see we live in the same area! I work for the New Era and we just did a big tornado anniversary section. I blog about food and nature too.
But about the plant-- could it be some kind of trillium?

Frank Chiapperino said...

Thanks so much for writing about your walks. It makes me want to get out there and start walking again now that the weather is nice!

Genevieve Netz said...

Thanks for visiting, Emily. I worked at the New Era several years in Classified Advertising but quit about 3-1/2 years ago (if I am counting the years right.)

I like your suggestion that it might be trillium. I'm going to research that!

Genevieve Netz said...

Frank, thanks for your comment. It is easier to walk every night when you have someone to walk with. My husband walks too fast for me, so I like to walk with Isaac (my son.) He's pretty good about motivating me when I don't really feel like going, and I try to do the same for him.

You have a good blog going there -- Keep on blogging! :)

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