While I was in Iowa, Helen arranged for a day out with a friend of hers,
Elizabeth Garst. Elizabeth's grandfather, Roswell Garst,
was quite a character and hosted Nikita Khrushchev
at his farm back in the 1950's.
[Visit the Roswell & Elizabeth Garst Farmstead Historic District HERE]
The veggie patch - and hollyhocks (one of my top ten favourite flowers) . . .
Elizabeth & her family are donating a lot of their farmland to a nature conservancy project - trying to restore some of the original prairie & oak savanna.
Oak savanna
[Visit the Whiterock Conservancy HERE]
We had a wonderful day roaming around the area in Elizabeth's John Deere
'gator. I had the privilege of sitting in the back with Frank . . .
We roamed far & wide through Whiterock,
situated in a comparatively hilly area of Iowa,
full of lots of geological significance
which I've totally forgotten about now.
Whiterock Farm Barn
Not an old settler's cabin as I thought,
but one constructed in the early 30's;
then abandoned by 1940 . . . .
guess that's what happens when you let the maintenance slip.
The prairie flowers were gorgeous
but most of all the Butterfly Milkweed . . .
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