I wish I had more nerve...

We took a trip out to the Mennonite community near Scottsville, KY this morning. I could have had some fantastic photos today, but I know that the Mennonites don't appreciate the cameras and I respect that, although I still kick myself for respecting that [Drat, drat, drat, those would have been great shots!]

The wheat was gathered in sheaves in the fields, stacked upright like hundreds of little tepees. We placed an order for a gallon of raw honey (it won't be harvested for a couple of weeks yet), and while Bret talked to the gentleman who sells the honey I watched three little girls in brown dresses and white head coverings as they quietly stood nearby, the youngest trying to catch butterflies near the vegetable garden.

Then we went to pick up a sack of cracked corn for the hogs, and I watched a woman among the tomato plants while in the background by her house a horse hitched to a buggy stood tied under the most beautiful weeping willow. I so wanted to photograph her, but I didn't dare. We go rather frequently to this community, and I don't want to become a persona non grata...it might be different if we were one-time visitors.

Then we stopped and watched Mark shear a sheep, while a few feet away from him a young man was skinning another, then gutting it for some customers. A dozing german shepherd lay nearby, and my oldest three kids watched with fascination (Adrian didn't want to go out because the dog worried him, and Dominic was asleep).

I bought produce--red and green tomatoes, yellow squash, new potatoes and a basket of peaches--from one place, and peanut butter, sunflower seeds, dried apples and camphor oil from another. It's always good for my soul to visit there.

Hope I'll have the nerve to ask if I may photograph them at threshing time. They may be less self conscious because of the machinery...