ALL GOOD THINGS...

"Old age and the passage of time teach all things." -  Sophocles

My first image of the barn, circa 1995-ish?

It doesn't mean much in the grand scheme of things, but there are those landmarks we have come to know and expect when we go to a particular destination. It could be as profound as the Empire State Building or as humble as a little red barn alongside the road in the country.

In the country-ish but growing town of Davidsonville, twenty minutes outside Annapolis, Maryland, is a road called Mount Airy. The countryside in this area is lush and green, dotted with private estates and a few remaining farms which are giving way to larger and grander housing developments.

At the corner of Davidsonville Road and Mount Airy sits the U-Pick Farm, where members can harvest their own fruits and vegetables by hand before taking them home for supper.

Just across the street and around the bend from the U Pick sat a wonderful little red-roofed barn, a favorite landmark for my family since my parents moved into the area some 30+ years ago. It was like an old friend welcoming you home, or the last to say goodbye when you left.

I have no idea of the background or even ownership of the barn, save its location along Mt Airy. But it has always been there, always said, to me,  "Country".

And now it is gone. As a result of my posting the image of the barn just a few days ago as a Daily Picture, I have word from my sisters than the wonderful little barn has succumbed to this last winter's intense weather and the general drift of time -- and is now coming down. Safely, it is hoped.

I will miss it, and yet the last time I left my parents' house in Davidsonville I looked at the barn and wondered if, indeed, this would be the last time I would see it. 

So even though it's not the Empire State Building, or the Eiffel Tower, or the Sydney Opera House, the world has lost a tiny little landmark out in the Maryland farmland.

Close-up of the damage

And a sad little bit of me goes with it.

For comparison with two decades of wear

Wear and tear

Back of the barn

As I will always remember it