T.C. Steele house

[meretia]

I live down about an hour south of Indianapolis, and to the east there's a spot called Brown County that's a really popular tourist destination for southern Indiana. I mostly just go through it on the way to Columbus, this funky little town about forty minutes east. But about halfway through Brown County there's the neatest thing hidden away up on a ridge: the T.C. Steele House historical site. T.C. Steele was apparently an Indiana native artist in the early 20th century, and the state maintains his house and gardens up on the hill.

I've never actually been into his house or studio (the grounds are free, you pay for the tour), but it's a lovely place to go walk around. I've only been twice, in the spring and at the end of August, and it's really quite striking how quickly it grew up over a couple months.







The front of the house and his main painting studio in May






And in August.


Chipping sparrow chipping around in the driveway.



Territorial irises.


There's a garden behind the house that has a pair of ponds with a little channel between them. In the spring you can see it pretty well.


In the summer, not so much.






Both times I went there were northern green frogs everywhere. The only way I keep track of which pictures are from which trip was that it started to rain when I was there in May.


But in the summer, protofrog!






And koi!




And a raft of waterlilies that all but took over the lower pond by the summer. Plus a ton of dragonflies that were too quick to photograph. And in the spring the place was crawling with these weird big, red wasps that seemed to live in underground burrows. I did not photograph them because I ran away from them.

It started to rain before I made it down the hill to the front garden in the spring, but in the summer it was full of swallowtail butterflies.


Eastern swallowtail


At first I thought this was a spicebush swallowtail, but the more I look at the coloring,the more I think it's more likely to be a dark morph Eastern swallowtail.


This one might actually be a spicebush, because it has the white spots along the edges of the wings, but it was so skittish that this was the best shot I got of it.


In the far corner of the side lawn, there's a ring of trees where T.C. Steele and his wife and children are buried. I walked out to see what the cemetery was (since there was just a little sign pointing off the driveway that said "cemetery" and no marked trails or anything), but what I found more striking was the view back toward the hill and the house. It's just a beautiful, peaceful place.

By then it was 5:00 and they were closing so I had to leave. I expect it will probably be interesting in the fall. And maybe in the winter, but I'm not so brave about driving a Honda Civic up little backwoods ridge roads in the ice and snow. But fall should be pretty.

Comments

[spiralsheep]

I'll never get over how odd half-way-frogs look to me. They ought to look like any other tailed amphibian but they don't because they lack balance in their attributes.

Territorial irises.

Hee!

I especially like your butterfly action shot. Thank you for sharing! :-)

[meretia]

I know! It almost looks like a salamander.

And thank you! I'm glad you liked them.