WWQP Bulletin Board Chat

Quiet of the country

Jane, what a lovely post. It perfectly describes what living in the country is all about. Peace and quiet and observing nature in the smallest of ways...birds and nest sitting. I have a small ornamental birdhouse that I put outside in the garden. After years of housing it decoratively in my bedroom, I decided to see if it would survive our hard winters here and it has. It's also, every year, given tiny birds a new home. Last year, it was a family of wrens; this year, chickadees. When I planted my gladioli bulbs last week, I realized, much to the chickadee's distress, they were hatching babies in the bird box. I did the job and now won't disturb them again, except when I water the garden. In the country, there is time to look and so much to see. But there is also the aloness that if living alone may not be the best thing for humans as we are, most of us, pack animals. The long winters are hard on people living in the country where the climate is such that you can't get out and about as easily because of snow and icy conditions. And then there is the thought that when we get too old to cope with all that, where do we move? I hope never to but know it's inevitable if I live long enough. I look at the small town nearby and know the city is creeping northwards; the town is growing and while I enjoy the people who live in the town, the services it offers, the fact that I don't have to get stuck in that awful city traffic an hour away, I don't want to live in a developed community.

Maybe I am a closet hermit. Who knows. I haven't had someone 'looking down my backside' for over forty years. I wonder that I'll get used to it again when the time comes. I believe country people have a harder time adjusting to neighbours. Had we not moved to the country, we would never know that feeling.

RoseyP

posted by RoseyP @ 5:35 AM