CITY COMES TO THE COUNTRY

Most of you know that I grew up in Los Angeles County California. My dad loved Roses so we had beautiful ones. Until I was in 5th grade we didn't have a vehicle so we walked to the grocery store for all our food. Our dog was a house dog. She loved me, slept with me and went to the vet once a year for her shots. She ate table scraps.

The day after graduating from 8th grade we moved. The house my parents owned had two fruit trees so we had wonderful peaches and plums. My dad loved Roses so he planted a Rose Garden.

You now have the extent of my knowledge about country life. Food came from the store and animal husbandry consisted of a dog sleeping with me.

When my husband and I moved to Georgia my ignorance of agrarian life shown brightly.

The first part of my education was that people didn't have a pig ranch they had a hog farm. I thought farming was something that happened in the ground...well when you look at hog wallowing in the mud the word "farm" begins to makes sense.

Next was the day Garry said that they were getting the pine straw for the animals. My brilliant question was, "Do they eat that"? Hay, straw, pine straw...what do I know? It gave him a good laugh and reminded him that I was truly ignorant of the basics of life and survival without a grocery store and money would be very difficult for me.

Today I took my granddaughter outside. She's 2.5 and we had a good time. The vines that I've been told for years are grapes had something beautifully purple growing on them. They don't look like grapes to me and the birds hadn't seemed to eat them but I laughed. Laughed because I love purple and lavender and my husband has told me that there is ENOUGH of that color in the house and that he didn't want any more. I have no idea if those are wild grapes or what but they are purple! And they aren't in the house!

The picture at the beginning is the purple whatever. If you know what it is please let me know. In the mean time I'm going to enjoy learning to live in the country.