November 30: Abandoned or Artistic Buildings/Writer’s Choice/or Your WOTY Month-end review
“When I was in high school, my friends and I would drive out into the country to abandoned houses and structures… haha… to ghost hunt. We would scare each other so bad! We would sometimes camp out by the abandoned buildings just to scare ourselves! Such good times. The adrenaline of real fear is so cool!”
– Keegan Allen
Featured Bloggers Last Week
I am super grateful for all of you who visit and post each week. You bring me joy, I learn about the world far and near, and feel close to you and what you are doing in your lives.
- KEEP IT ALIVE – THANKS TO THE LOVELY GARDENERS OF OUR SOULS AND MAKE US HAPPY AND CAUSE US TO BLOSSOM.
- LADY LEE – THANKFUL FOR “TENDERNESS WITHOUT FRILLS” AND MUCH MORE.
- SECOND WIND LEISURE – GRATEFUL FOR VIVID MEMORIES OF HOME AND FAMILY
- THE SKEPTIC’S KADDISH – NEW JOB – NEW SECURITY YAY!
- TRAVELS AND TRIFLES – WHERE WOULD YOU TAKE VISITORS WHO HAVEN’T BEEN TO YOUR HOME COUNTRY?
For More Abandoned Buildings Visit These Blogs
- EKLASTIC – THE SCARY FACE BEHIND THE BURNT BUILDING
- KEEP IT ALIVE – NOT ABANDONED BUT SAVED FROM RUIN
- LOVING LIFE – THE STORIES THESE BUILDINGS COULD TELL!
- NOW AT HOME – THE DESERT SANDS TOOK OVER THE BUILDINGS!
- SECOND WIND LEISURE – SNOWY BUILDINGS, BUT NOT ABANDONED. IT’S TERRI’S BIRTHDAY!
- TRAVEL WITH ME – EARTHQUAKE DAMAGE IN BHAKTAPUR
- TRAVELS WITH ALI – ABANDONED BUILDINGS SO HIGH NEAR HONG KONG YOU WONDER HOW THEY GOT THERE IN THE FIRST PLACE!
- WORDS VISUAL – EERIE RUINS IN MID WALES
Abandoned in Elderwood
From Portland to Spokane Terri and I searched for abandoned barns for one of her Sunday Stills themes. We didn’t find anything. My question for this post is to consider if abandoned buildings are even art? Apparently, they are because when I searched for quotes I found an entire website on where to find abandoned buildings for photo shoots.
“Our search engine has helped millions of people scout out thousands of locations across the world, from derelict buildings to abandoned theme parks.
If you’re urban exploring or just looking for a place for a photo shoot, I’m sure we’ll having something for you to discover.”
– Shot Hotspot
Do you have photos of abandoned buildings? Why did you take the pictures? You have seen some of my pictures if you have known me long enough.
Vince and I had driven by an old barn less than a mile away from our home in California hundreds of times on our way home. One afternoon when the clouds were dark and the sun was strong, he looked at it and said that would be a great photo. He dropped me off I went crazy taking over 100 pictures that day. To see more pictures of Bob’s Barn click here.
Bob tore it down the next week and planted an orange grove.
“The abandoned building glowed golden in the light of the new day, its’ stones finding their way to join the dawn chorus.”
-Angela Abraham
A week ago I received an email asking me about an abandoned hotel just outside of Woodlake in an area known to locals as Redbanks. He wondered if a hotel out in the middle of nowhere was used for prostitution.
“I am wondering what kind of skullduggery was really happening at the Redbanks Hotel one hundred years ago, during the era of Prohibition. (I have my ideas ranging from a simple speakeasy coupled with prostitution to a “dry-out center” for Hollywood addicts.) What do you know? Do you have any ideas? “
-Richard
I sent him a copy posted on my Blogger Woodlake History website of an article written by an earlier historian about the history of the fruit company that built the building.
“Founded in 1904 Redbanks Orchard Company shipped trainloads of fruit around the country on the Electric Railroad in the early 1900s, “The Hotel” near Woodlake, California, was one of the most beautiful Spanish-style buildings in the area. Resembling a Southern Pacific depot, the building, constructed in 1914, served as the headquarters of the company.” earlier post on Redbanks
Schools are always favorites of mine. One of the schools was moved and preserved by one of the main contributors to my book about Woodlake, lifelong Woodlake resident, Robert Edmiston. In my earlier post about it, he said that the school had been on his “Granny Fudge’s” property so it might have been moved there at a later date than the 1860s. Antelope School was not established until 1870 and it was the first public school in the Woodlake area.
“By the end of the 1860s, the Colvins, Bacons, Barringtons, Fudges, and Reynolds had arrived in the Woodlake area. Thomas Henry Davis had hired one John Hill to teach his sons and the Fudge and Barrington children on Davis acres in a sheep shed.”
Roy Lee Davis, life-long Woodlake resident
Many buildings last much longer than 110 years in other parts of the world. In California, early buildings were not made to last. In some cases, once they served their purpose, they were abandoned. Untreated wood rots even in semi-desert areas, so the abandoned buildings slowly deteriorate.
Elda School sits close enough to Millwood Drive that you could almost touch it as you head into the mountains on the rural highway about five miles from our home in California. For each of the twenty years we lived there, I marveled that it still stood. When we passed by in May, it still remained. Is it a work of art or a pile of rotten wood?
Abandoned in Deleware
Another building that I enjoyed photographing was in Deleware next to Cousin Hal’s condominium complex – the first Catholic Church in Deleware. As I drove by it the first time, I couldn’t wait to get back and explore it. Why is that? What is the fascination with old abandoned buildings? I’ve written about St. Mary’s Church several times for photo challenges on my blog, so if you’ve seen it before, feel free to skip the clicks. But, if you’re like me and like to explore, here’s another St. Mary’s Post.
In retrospect, I should have posted this theme in October, right? Scary!
Vivid Abandonment in Arizona
This was the only photo of an abandoned building/dwelling I could find this week that was vivid enough to work for Terri’s Sunday Stills Challenge this week. To the left of the picture, if you are not familiar with them, are Native American cliff dwellings.
Lens-Artist, Tina encouraged us to look around and decide where we would take a stranger if they were to visit our area. I’ve posted pictures of places near me that I probably wouldn’t take a stranger. However, Montezuma’s Well has an interesting history – enough to be declared a National Monument.
For Becky B my birthday outing was the perfect opportunity to post a couple of #Walking Squares. It is a quick walk along the 1/2 mile path to see cave dwellings and one other building that looks like the foundation of a home we might build today.
Curating to the End of the Month
Yesterday, this quote inspired me to curate efficiently.
“One of the worst uses of time is to do something very well that need not be done at all.”
–Brian Tracy
I made a list of things that had to be done, and prioritized them, which helped me curate my “stuff” Sunday when the sun shone. On Monday when I wrote this post, it was gray, cold, and windy. “Stuff” for the office lay uncurated in boxes in our master bedroom. However, it was a perfect day to write my blog post for Wednesday, which goes up on my priority list exponentially as the day approaches.
“Architecture is a visual art and the buildings speak for themselves.”
Julia Morgan
Many of you have commented that abandoned buildings are indeed art. I found this quote in Kirstin’s Loving Life post listed in the “More Ideas” section. As the quote suggests, this post of abandoned buildings shows examples of public art, so I’m posting this for Natalie’s PPAC/Weekend Coffee Share post today.
Challenges that Influenced WQW #46
In addition to Sunday Stills and Natalie’s PPAC/Weekend Coffee Share, this post is also influenced by the following challenges
- Changing Seasons: Touring my Backyard, Bush Boy’s World
- Cell Pic Sunday Most of the photos here are taken with either my iPhone 12s mini or my iPhone 6
- What’s Been on Your Calendar – a new challenge coming out in 2023 that incorporated Word of the Year and much more. This is a post about it. Donna, Deb, Jo, and Sue also host What’s on Your Bookshelf, which, along with Natalie Coffee Share, inspires me to read each week.
November 2022 Highlights
- This is my 10th post for this month.
- Both Vince and I had birthdays this month and celebrated well.
- I emptied the two-car garage enough that both cars fit comfortably, which means that I took a lot of “stuff” to the Goodwill store. I had to close my eyes and curate things into boxes and garbage bags and drive on. I couldn’t toy with the idea that something might come in handy later in life. 🙂
- Some things got curated into the trash. On Monday Vince needed the old extension cord I threw away on Sunday. I knew that was going to happen! In my defense, it only had a place to plug in a two-pronged plug.
- We celebrated Thanksgiving with strangers rather than at home.
- I have a new walking partner and she hustles me walking up and down stairs. I walked over 11,000 steps (not stairs) on at least two separate occasions. It was too cold and windy for a walk today.
- I gave up not eating sweets for the next two months.
- I finished the autobiography Katherine Johnson, My Remarkable Journey. She is one of the black female NASA mathematicians who plotted courses by hand for our space flights in the 60s and 70s. The movie “Hidden Figures” was based on her life. She lived to be 101 and took boxing lessons to stay in shape at age 88! What an inspiration!
- The movie “Where the Crawdads Sing” about an abandoned child is one of the best videos I saw this month.
- We decorated our Jimson house for Christmas to brighten up the gloomy gray day on Monday and to clean out some of our boxes.
- I received another email from someone telling me how they could improve my disorganized and error-ridden website. As I wrote this post and linked it to old ones, I corrected some of the glaring mistakes and wondered what in the world Grammarly and my brain were up to back then. I also wondered what I’m missing today that will stand out VIVIDLY to you now and later to me.
“Your website and needs immediate improvement on some of the major factors mentioned below:
– Less visibility for many competitive keyword phrases
Coby
– Errors that prevent your website from being indexed properly by search engines.
– Unorganized social media accounts.
– Shortage of content based back links.
– Less participation on social media portals.”
When I started blogging ten years ago, I didn’t know what half those bullet points meant. Now I know that they are what Brian Tracy might classify as doing a great job at something not worth doing.
If you blog for fun like I do, it is important to curate your blog for errors and to make your posts vivid and interesting. This pesky marketer doesn’t even mention the importance of visiting other bloggers and having a relationship that lasts over the years. Silly Coby.
Play Along with WQW
I hope you have not had an abandoned week. If you want to play along with Writer’s Quotes Wednesday, write a post about the topic of abandoned buildings, find a quote that you like, and link your post to my post.
Upcoming on Always Write
WQW Schedule until the end of the year.
- December 7: Water: Snow/Winter Wonderland – A challenge to design a new logo for WQ – I’m simplifying the name of the challenge to Wednesday Quotes for 2023.
- December 14: Food: Delicious Delights
- December 21: Holiday: Christmas or Winter Solstice
- December 28: Reflections on 2022/Writer’s Choice/ or YOUR WOTY Review Voting for the top design for 2023.
PPAC is now hosted by Natalie the Explorer. You can link your post directly to her Weekend Coffee Share blog post.
Marsha Ingrao - Always Write 
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