About an Old Place..

Sometimes.. i need to get out of town.  I love our home in the suburbs, and i love our neighbors and our neighborhood.  Some days i love to get out of these suburbs and go into the city!  Into Portland.  West Coast rendition.  But today, i wanted quiet.  A little open space.  Trees.  Fields.  I had just a little over an hour between appointments, so i couldn't make it a day's long drive to the countryside.  And i couldn't go too far out.  It takes awhile to leave the traffic behind around here.  Especially on a Friday.  It seems there are more humans on the roads.  They likely want to get out of town for awhile too!  :)  I knew exactly where i could go.  And i timed it just right!  I love little historic churches.  White ones with steeples.  I have a thing for them.  I think they remind me of my first home in Maine.  I adore an old white clapboard church on a pretty New England Town Green.  There aren't many places of worship like that out here.  There are some lovely churches.  It's just that they're more.. modern.  From an architectural standpoint, many of them are fascinating.  And i must admit, i'd never seen a church in a strip mall until we moved out here!  :D  I realize a church isn't supposed to look a certain way.  It's not about the building.  A church is made up of people who attend it and make the community.  But when i get a little homesick as i have been the last week or so, i love to spend a little quiet time walking around an old church.  I feel comforted.  So i spent part of this afternoon here...

The West Union Baptist Church is just a few miles outside of Hillsboro where S and i live.  It's a Classical Revival style church built of hand hewn lumber in 1853.  It's the oldest Protestant church still standing west of the Rocky Mountains, and it's on the National Register of Historic Places.  It has beautiful cedar rafters, which i wanted to get in and photograph.. Alas, it was a spur of the moment trip.  I couldn't go in but, yes, i admit it.  I spied a little in the windows...  :)

Simple and beautiful.  I love ornate cathedrals too.  The stained glass windows.  And i find them architecturally fascinating.  But part of me is minimalist.  I love small and plain.  Just as lovely to me...

The charming gate to the tiny sanctuary.  I fell in love!  Pretty soon, the gate will be covered in pink and white roses...  And it will smell as lovely as it looks.  It just feels good to be here.  :)

I also have a fondness for shuttered windows.  These are weathered and wonderful.  It's comforting to see them.  I love old things.  Old buildings.  Antique objects!  Of course, i'll never know the people who attended this church and farmed this area over a century and a half ago,  but i feel as though i've been introduced in a way.  And i certainly admire their handywork here!

The beautiful two acres surrounding the church were donated by David Thomas Lenox in 1853 specifically for the church building and the surrounding cemetery..  Peaceful.

So.. all in all, it was a 'productive', relaxing and quiet hour i spent sort of..  :) .. out of town!  I would have loved to go into this wonderful place for a few quiet minutes of meditation.  Contented sigh.  Some other day.

I experienced many other beautiful moments this Friday!  And a couple of them, as usual, happened while i was observing our kitties...

Cute kitty paws!  Love 'em.  And i have a few photos to prove it and save for posterity, but i won't post them all here.  That would definitely be overdoing it...

Just one more.  I promise.

Gorgeous Maine Coon Otis!  Who, when he's in the right light, shows more of his orange fur.  He also, as most felines i've met, worships the sunshine!  Spring's coming soon, he says!

6:20 Friday evening here on the beautiful Left Coast.  Have a beautiful weekend all!  Love, peace and hopefully lots of sunshine.  Remember.  Daylight Savings Time begins this weekend.  Fondly...  M.