Wisteria

Last Thursday I drove from Mathews to King William for my son's track meet and brought my loaner camera along for the ride.

On the way out of the county just before Dutton I glanced through the rear view mirror and noticed the wisteria growing up the side of this wonderful old structure.

So I pulled over in the little dirt turnaround in front of the building below and snapped these few shots.

My mother lived near here as a child and can perhaps provide additional details or memories about the area.


I've always been drawn to the old buildings.

Unrelated to the Dutton area but along the lines of old buildings draped with wisteria, below is an image from 2010 taken with my Beloved Camera, which is currently in the repair shop.

(With any luck, it will be back home and by my side within two weeks.)

A 2010 photo of an old store hiding behind a trailer
on Route 14 across from the state shed.

Click here for the May 2010 post about wisteria and the photo above.

May your week be as cheerful and hopeful as the lilac-purple flowers on the upward climbing vine otherwise known as wisteria.

Wisteria

This lovely purple flower is a vine called wisteria. I've always loved that it tends to show up in the most unusual places, like draped across the remains of an old house, or high atop a stand of trees.

This particular shot is from the old building just past the state shed at Foster, before Trinity Episcopal Church on the right if you're leaving Mathews. There's a trailer (attached to that pipe-looking thing in the lower right corner) directly in front of the building which blocks its full view. I'd give anything to have a shot of this place with the wisteria in bloom minus that trailer.

Chesapeake Bay Mother actually knows a little something about the old building hiding underneath the flowers. She said it was a store, and she even knows the name of it. But I forgot what she said while she was telling me, there were way too many look! shiny things! distractions and interruptions.

Distractions and interruptions, plus procrastination and an inability to complete anything--if you toss in a few insect infestations that pretty much defines my life.

My BFF Wikipedia says this about wisteria:

Wisteria (also spelled Wistaria*) is a genus of flowering plants in the pea family, Fabaceae. It contains about ten species of woody climbing vines native to the eastern United States and the East Asian states of China, Korea, and Japan. Aquarists refer to the species Hygrophila difformis, in the family Acanthaceae, as Water Wisteria.

Wisteria vines climb by twining their stems either clockwise or counter-clockwise round any available support. ..The world's largest known Wisteria vine is located in Sierra Madre, California, measuring more than 1 acre in size and weighing 250 tons.

*We neither spell nor pronounce it "wistaria" around these parts.

Anyone from around here know anything about the old store hiding behind the trailer at the bend in the road near the state shed?

Wisteria: beautiful flower or invasive weed? Please discuss.

Have a fantastic weekend.