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

[felis]

What a great little trip, thank you for sharing! I especially love the second to last picture, the movement and the colours in it.

(The fourth picture doesn't show up for me - which might be a problem with my browser, but I thought I'd mention it in case it isn't.)

[sid]

Lovely photos! I lived in/around Indy for many years, but I only made it down to Brown County twice, I think. It's definitely a wonderful area, and now I know there's a hidden treasure!

[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! :-)

[spiralsheep]

I'm getting stripes instead of the fourth image too.

[meretia]

Thank you! I'm glad you liked them. That shot was just sheer luck, I'd spent ten minutes trying to get a shot of those butterflies where they weren't on the wrong side of the plant from me, and that one just came zipping in.

(Weird, when I look at it, I see the same thing. I reposted the code, and now it seems to work.)

[meretia]

I just moved over to Bloomington last year, and I really like the area. I feel a little disloyal being like "meh, Brown County's okay," but there just doesn't seem to be a lot there for all the hype it gets in Indiana. Apparently they make good coffee, though.

But yeah, the T.C. Steele site is really a hidden gem. It's fifteen or twenty minutes east of Bloomington off State Road 46. I only went up there following a sign for Crooked Creek, and I was expecting the historical site to be like a plaque or something. But apparently they're pretty active in the arts community; when I was there in May they had some kind of classes going on, and there's an artist in residence cottage over by the main office.

[meretia]

I know! It almost looks like a salamander.

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

[malnpudl]

Oh, hi, Brown County! *nostalgia*

I grew up in SW Ohio, and my family visited Brown County a few times over the years, camping trips and fall foliage and the like. Happy times. :-)

Is that where Columbus is? The town with all the architectural awesomeness? That was my favorite trip.

Lovely pictures. I appreciate the way you frame your shots. :-)

[adair]

Thanks for the recommendation. I live in east central Illinois and avoid Brown County to dodge all the leaf tourists, but this sounds like a trip worth taking.