Important

It's important to preserve wonderful old barns like this one.

Today, a researcher from the Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation is coming to photograph the two old barns on our property as part of a project to nominate old agricultural buildings to the State Register of Historic Places.

This is a vignette from our old cow barn, which was built in the 1800's with chestnut beams and pegs. That proud old piece of wood jutting out from the eave is what is left of some equipment once used to bring hay up to the loft. It reminds me of the battered bowsprit on a ghost ship. The bent, patinated copper star is an old lightning rod.

Here is the runner-up in the "which photo to blip today?" dilemma: Twins