ARTFUL DECREPITUDE

Sister's Garden, south of Iowa City.

Bloom, a new old house at Sister's Garden.

An old column and some barbed wire.

That same day, I found this tattered body of a moth, beautiful, even in death.

The view from Sister's of the woods and a cornfield.  A quintessential, summer scene from here in Iowa.

Yesterday afternoon I went on a little road trip with a friend a little south of where I live.  There is a little shop out in the country near Kalona, Iowa, called Sister's Garden.  Sister's consists of an decrepit old farm house and another house that is new, but was built to look old.  It's quite a unique place with garden art, antiques, new things that look antique and bits of architectural salvage that are really pieces of art in their own right.  Going there got me to thinking about the beauty that's to be found in decay.  Have you ever walked or driven down a country road and come upon a an old abandoned house that just called out to you to step inside?  That's sort of what I'm talking about.  When my sister's and I were kids, there was an old house down the road from us like that.  We called it the Haunted House, not so much because it was scary, but I think because we wanted it to be haunted.  It was on this bit of property that once was probably really well-tended, but by then was full of nettles and brambly raspberries (that we really enjoyed!).  There were old fallen in sheds and rusting old farm implements.  I loved this place.  It captured my imagination.  What is it about places like that?  Is it that little bit of sadness that places like that conjure up in us?  Is it that people long ago lived lives there and were hopefully happy there?  Or is it the thought that all things end up in decay, and that as unimaginable as it seems, so will we?