It’s one of those weird, weird summers. First we had rain, rain and more rain! (Gee, all these multiples means I am making a point maybe?) So now it’s been the heat which has dried up the mucky yard, but the veggies have suffered. Weeds are everywhere!

A bright spot in my yard with 3 locations of these beauties:

Star Gazer lilies look like they may be difficult to grown. I have two pots with the bulbs in them and they sit outside all winter. Actually one pot is about 6 years old and the other is new-both Star Gazers that look a bit different.  The first photo are ones in the ground. Their aroma really defines July to me (other than the smell of firecrackers!).

We were down at a park in Maryland yesterday. We had wanted to go to Ocean City, NJ, but didn’t get up soon enough. Elk Creek State Park will be my next post. And it will be an interesting one, I promise!

Now I will share some beautiful old buildings with you from near where we live. I am pretty happy with my Samsung cellphone’s photos. We have had their tv for a number of years and love it. The only thing that the phone does is to start to flip between screens if I overdo it with the photos. I am sure I’ve taken at least 300 photos since March.

This is The Blue Church (1832) in Springfield PA.

This building, which is now the oldest standing church building in Springfield, came to be known as “The Blue Church” because Lownes had constructed it of blue Pennsylvania limestone, which turned a shade of blue in wet weather.

This is in an area where there are shopping centers on both sides of the road, so a busy very modernized area here. I know a FB pal’s pal got married here.

This is Walden School in Upper Providence township, PA. It was called Sandy Bank school (1836) for many years. I went here for kindergarten, 2nd and 3rd grade. Kindergarten was in the basement. When our day was over, it turned into the lunch room.  I have many memories of using the red tablets that stained our teeth so we saw where we were missing in the brushing department. Also loved the seesaw and playground. Being able to draw Snoopy in 3rd  grade and having the other kids want me to draw for them. Listening to the teacher read Pippy Longstockings. Kids making fun of my speech impediment.  Having the teacher yell at me for sucking my hair (ugh). The coat closet, a room in itself and struggling with boots-the kind you had to pull up over your shoes. Awful.

St. Mary’s Chapel (1873), Exton, PA

This happen to be the little church my husband Brian was baptized in. His parents said he cried a lot as baby and having him in church didn’t make a difference. We were in the area for my MRI (I have another post about my back to do) and we stopped by a few places and this was one of them. This little chapel not only had a geocache behind it, it had an Entenmann’s outlet store next to it!

This is also off a very busy road near a mall.

Across the street:

The “King’s Highway” was originally laid out in 1690, as an east-west thoroughfare enabling people and goods to move from the Philadelphia area to Lancaster. In 1791 it became a toll road, known as “The Lancaster Turnpike.” Along this busy thoroughfare, James Bowen erected an elegant tavern known as “The Ship Inn”. Across the street from the Inn stood a fine, gray stone livery stable first built in 1793, where those lodging at the Ship Inn would house their horses.

This is said to be haunted!

And last but not least, The Kennett Inn, a few miles from where we live:

The Kennett Inn, originally founded in 1835 was renovated in 1927 as “The Green Gate Tea Room “during the era of prohibition, then in 1976 the Inn was restored with great care to present a formal dining room and colonial tavern with hard wood floors, cherry tables which preserves its history with a friendly small town hospitality.