Flora and Fauna Friday, III

At the Farm

If you take a road running south of Pittsburgh over a big hill and then down into a holler where a fast-moving run flows eventually into the moody Monongahela, you’ll pass through one of those single-lane underpasses which seem like utter madness to anyone outside of southwestern Pennsylvania. Once safely on the other side, you’ll drive high up on a ridge overlooking tidy suburban homes before joining the highway and quickly descending down into the valley of the Monongahela herself. There’s a bridge there (painted Carolina Blue, but we’ll forgive them that), and if you cross it and continue on, you’ll eventually see an unlabeled road on your left which seems to swerve off into rolling anonymous farmland. And you’d be mostly correct to assume that. But, first you’ll pass a circa 1840 Greek Revival farmhouse where Johnny Appleseed supposedly picked apples and a Presbyterian church and cemetery with a congregation dating back to the late 18th-century. Then, on your left, there will be a county park. And while this park has a nice playground, picnic shelters, and even a spray park, the main attraction is its exhibition farm. It’s where the county police horses go to retire, and I must say, I envy them a bit.

Here are some pictures of the flora and fauna at the exhibition farm.

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