Bow and Edison - part 1

This was our favorite Friday - sunny - white puffy clouds - and an afternoon to do what we wanted.  As we drove up I-5 towards home - after shopping and a nice lunch in Mt. Vernon - we decided to take a detour through the tiny towns of Bow and Edison - you could call them the twin cities - they are so close together it is hard to tell when one stops and the other begins.  And many of the little stores use Bow as their address becasue that is the town with the post office.

They are two of the most charming towns we've ever visited.  With Victorian homes, galleries, small shops and tiny restaurants - just the thing for  a lazy afternoon jaunt.  The traffic is so infrequent that we often stopped right in the road to get photos - sometimes for up to 5 minutes, and no cars came up behind us.  Once one did and they politely pulled slowly around us - leaving me to finish getting the photos I wanted.  Sometimes we pulled to the side of the road if there was room - and the cars still moved slowly past. No honking or impatience.

The heavenly scents coming from this bakery filled the whole town . . .

The metal sign has birds, fish and plants in each of the letters . . .

Just after I took this photo a local lady came out with a big bag of bread for her dinner party that night. She didn't want to be photographed. . .

Just down the street is this business - a coffee shop  which sells local seafood, wines and assorted goodies.  The front is completely open but a man was sitting right on the edge of the elevated sidewalk, and again, didn't want to be photographed.

I wonder if the same person made this sign as made the Bread Farm sign.

A local shop with a clever name. They salvage what is considered useless by many and make new items for sale . . .

Another bakery - with picnic tables for sampling the fragrant breads and baked goods . . . we had just eaten lunch so we didn't stop . . .

I couldn't find anything that told what this big eye was for - the building was empty . . .

Wooden geese on the outside of an art gallery . . .

Flowers for sale in the town of "Bow" - another clever sign . . .

An old barn on the edge of town . . .

Antlers on a weathered building . . .

I glimpsed this garden on the way through town and when we came back I just had to get out of the car and get some photos. . . I like the fishing lures on the screen door.

There are two of these coke bottle sculptures in this garden - I couldn't figure out if there was another use for them - or if they were just decorative.  They certainly caught my attention . . .

"Playground Duck" sculpture . . .

And a "Playground chicken" . . .

Plants and pots - taken over the fence . . . I couldn't find anyone at home to talk to about the garden - I would have loved to hear their story . . .

Bleeding heart . . .

There was the biggest old dog in this garden - he came meandering out and sat amongst the plants - I tried to get a picture of him when he was standing up, but he snaked around through the plants so I never could get a clear shot of him.  He was as big as some shetland ponies - and very hairy.

On the way into town I spied these horses - on the other side of the road - so we looked for landmarks so we could stop and get photos of them on the way back through . . .

Big, life-size metal horses . . .

Who made them - and what are they doing in this yard - besides enticing me to take photos . . .
The only house is a small travel trailer and there were no signs about the metal horses . . .

Such detail - and so realistic . . .