WWQP Bulletin Board Chat

Sara, the juxtaposition of your post with Jane's in relation to the country and a more urbanized living arrangement, is timely. While not wanting to tempt the fates, for breakin's occur here in the country and given our location so far back from the roadway, we are an easy mark. I recall many years ago as we were preparing to drive to the cottage on a Sunday morning, four young men came driving into our laneway. There is no opportunity to turn around except by coming right down in to the house. We stopped them, surprised as they were, and asked what they wanted. They said: we are looking for a gas station. Good try. The nearest station is out on the highways some miles away. It left us both rather shaken.

The locking of our doors never occurs except overnight and that only for insurance purposes and when I leave the house to go to town and there is no-one at home (I have, I hope, finally impressed on the other half living here that it's necessary or the insurance claim, should there be one, won't work). I remind myself, when I am visiting city friends, that I just can't walk in the door when I knock. Friends, here, knock, yell hello and walk in. I volunteer with a woman who has just in the past year moved into town from the country. She is very unhappy. Can't get used to noisy neighbours and will be moving; where, she isn't sure but she and her husband won't be staying in their home where they are now located.

It takes some getting used to if you've been a city person and you move to the country. The isolation is one of the major factors that send people back to 'civilization' because they can't cope with it. Being able to 'get out' and into town is important. You must be self-reliant. There is no popping down to the corner grocery store if you run out of milk, sort of thing. A trip to town must count and you tend to make a list and route your way through town, which often takes me two hours once I'm in town to accomplish all my chores.

I treasure each day that I am living in the country. It is the greatest gift that I've ever managed to give myself, that of being a country person after forty-eight years in a city. However, there are still limitations that I would set for mysel in looking for country property. We are an hour to the city; ten minutes to town or less. Close enough for city stimulation (and traffic and noise and pollution) yet to come home here where there is utter quiet and where my son, when he first stayed here overnight ,complained about the crickets keeping him awake all night, I wouldn't want to live anywhere else. I am truly blessed, for now. Oh, and it helps to have a quilt project lined up for the winter ahead. Passes the time more quickly when I can't get out because of snowstorms.

RoseyP

posted by RoseyP @ 4:55 AM