The Witch House

One of the most wonderful things about going around taking pictures, is the people I meet along the way.  Whether they come up to me or I approach them, we engage in conversations, sharing what it is that we do, what we enjoy, and our individual experiences.  I consider myself so fortunate and blessed to make so many connections, however brief they may be. 

Yesterday I stopped at a neighbor's house a few miles down the road to request permission to photograph some things on his property.  Although living nearby and passing his house regularly for the past 26 years, we've never met.  Little does he know, but throughout that entire time and while our kids were growing up, his house has been always referred to so fondly by us as "The Witch House".  Not that it was a scary place, by any means, but because every Halloween season a decoration was created of a very realistic-looking witch with glowing eyes, stirring a steaming cauldron.  Many of those years she stirred with a very frantic, scary movement; other years it was a  s l o w , eerie stir.  "The Witch House" is a very important landmark in this part of the woods, and I'm certain many other families also refer the it as "The Witch House".  A jolly Santa with bright eyes and big, rosy cheeks is displayed at another time of the year.  The man is an artist, which I kind of already knew, based on the fact that a huge tree that once fell on his property, was left as a natural sculpture once the debris and some branches were cleared away, and it remained as a natural sculpture that I admired for many months each time I drove passed. 

I spent a good deal of time at The Witch House yesterday.  I learned about the wrought-iron pieces on his property and on the adjacent piece of land, that his father made.  I learned the object I wanted to photograph because of the peace and respite exuded, had been originally placed there for exactly those reasons.  I learned that he is unique and gifted in his visual abilities and the 3-dimensional way his brain interprets what he sees, thus creating these astounding reflecting images he sketches onto paper.  And I learned about a flower he has growing--and hopefully I have the correct name: a tropical Night Blossoming Cereus--a plant with several blossoms--each one blossoming for just one single night before drying up and falling off the plant.  As it happens, he predicted the flower to blossom open this very night!!  In fact, they're probably enjoying the spectacular flower right this very minute!!  Here is a photo of the bud, ready to burst at just the precise moment.  If the bud looks like this, imagine what the blossom will look like!!  (Or Google the image!)  The other objects I photographed have been set aside for a project I'm working on.

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