Wordless Wednesday: Niagara Falls at Sunset

Rusty Fall Prairie

My part of Kansas doesn’t have native trees with fire-red leaves, but we do have native grass that turns wispy and rusty as it waits for snow.

Roadside Continental

Vintage, classic, throwback or nostalgic: Pick your description. This roadside Continental is still a beauty.

Wordless Wednesday: Clydesdale Pony

Photo by E., my 4-H photographer, for next week’s county fair.

Wordless Wednesday: White Barn

Located on Highway 77, a few miles north of Florence, Kan.

Moved Away: The Old Kohler Place

Moved Away is an accidental series about forgotten farmsteads and rural homes.

“The Old Kohler Place,” South of Cheney, Kan.

Wordless Wednesday: Uncle Mel’s F-100

Early 1970s Ford F-100

Wordless Wednesday: Autumn Barn

Timeline of a coincidence

Do you look for signs — cosmic signals to explain, direct or confirm? I used to find them, or they would find me. These days, life is busier and if they are there, I’m not seeing them. Last weekend, one such sign was undeniable, an in-your-face cosmic coincidence. The timeline leading up to the moment went like this:

December 2011 – D. decides to take on photography as a 4-H project.

May 2012 – One spring photo trip includes a visit to Old Cowtown, a living history museum in Wichita, Kan. We happen upon an old-time baseball game. D. asks two of the players if he can take their photograph.

July 2012 – His great shot earns him a purple ribbon at the county fair and qualifies him to take it to the state fair.

September 2012 – We visit the 4-H building during the state fair, fingers crossed for another purple. We find our county’s display, but have to wait behind a dad and his kids who are taking a photo of a photo — D.’s photo. He turns around, apologizes for blocking our view, but says this photo is of him and his friend.

That’s right. The subject and the photographer meet at precisely the same moment, months later. We share an incredulous stare and laugh.

Sign, coincidence, fate, karma? The significance might be simple, the chance to share a great image, and to give a young photographer a boost. That’s good enough for this proud 4-H momma.

Here’s his shot. Hope you enjoy, too.

Baseball players at Old Cowtown Museum in Wichita.

Wordless Wednesday: Moved away

Abandoned farmstead near Glasco, Kansas