City goes Country…
We have had visitors here at Granite Glen these past few days…
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It’s a wonderful thing, sharing our corner of the Bush with our friends. We have only been (back) here for 18 months and already a great many of our mates have made the arduous journey from the city to see us.
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They came back for my birthday last year three months after we moved in, and have arrived for minor local events and just to see us many times since.
They came back for my birthday last year three months after we moved in, and have arrived for minor local events and just to see us many times since.
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For many, the five (plus) hours of driving seems like an enormous Mt Everest of a trip. Especially when they have children in tow. How on earth to cope with them cooped up for so long? While their parents negotiate unfamiliar highways and gravel roads? DVD players are employed and regular rest stops implemented to keep all and sundry sane and heading in the same general direction! Some take it all in their strides and arrive ready to attack their stay with gusto and a glint in their eyes. Some arrive all haggard and weary, beaten down by the navigation and unfamiliarity of the task and surroundings.
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I recall as a kid, the same trip being undertaken in a white Valiant station wagon, sans airconditioning and seatbelts. Sans stereo and automatic windows. When you had to stop vehicles during steep inclines to allow them to cool down (and yes, I am feeling old, people!). It took between seven and eight hours – an all day journey with three children on vinyl bench seats. I was a carsick child (a malady that still gets me to this day actually, but I pull rank and commandeer the front seat most of the time!) … vinyl seats may have been sweaty as hell on my little excema-afflicted legs, but it was great for getting the vomit off. Fun, fun, fun… my mother must’ve had the patience of a saint.
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A friend of ours (from up here) does this trip to the city without stopping – he and his wife have four kids. The carsick ones are trained to vomit (quietly and without complaint) into a container and then put the lid back on. Toilet stops are negotiated carefully with our friend dropping off his wife and the cross-legged child at the rest stop, chucking a u-turn about 1 km along and swinging by in time for pickup within a 3 minute period. He should have been in the army, I’m thinking. He just likes to get there as quickly as possible – and no-one ever complains. They get the maximum “visiting time” at their destination and it works for them.
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Another friend would turn the five hour journey into an eight-hour adventure, with stops every time their child murmured. They didn’t seem to mind the extended travel time, but it was hell waiting for them and wondering when exactly to send the search party out. I’m a first-born control freak and I like to know people are on-schedule and not wrapped around a tree somewhere.
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Horses for courses….
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Over the past month we have had two sets of visitors from the Big Smoke – bringing with them their special company and a chance for our kids to catch up with little buddies they haven’t seen for over a year.
They watch their offspring roam the corners of our place getting grubby and tired and happy.
And they revel in the quiet and the stars and the animals. 
We eat ludicrous amounts of homecooked food and talk late into the night over chardonnays (me!), merlots and rums (SSB and friends!).
We eat ludicrous amounts of homecooked food and talk late into the night over chardonnays (me!), merlots and rums (SSB and friends!).…
Some thoughtfully bring offerings they think we might miss: a city magazine filled with the latest fashions and restaurant reviews; dips and cheeses and wines we might not be able to buy in our local stores; newspapers filled with the latest news.
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We revel in their company and thank them warmly for their offerings. We are asked all the time what we miss about the city, and I honestly have to think long and hard to answer. ‘Not much’, I say. (They look skeptical, but it’s true). After they are gone I flick through the magazines – I discover I really couldn’t care less about an oxygen-heated yoga centre, or the latest fashions, or even a wine our local pub might not carry. We are lucky to have access to everything we really need, and with a little more driving, or a search on the internet, I can order it anyway. There are certainly challenges living out here, and the tyranny of distance is sometimes daunting. But I want for nothing.
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What we rejoice in is not things but people.
It’s really their company which is most appreciated and fondly recalled after they go. I love enfolding our friends in our home, and I love just having them here. They bring with them their latest pastimes and teach our children wild and wonderful tricks…
And fire their imaginations anew at the possibilities of the world…
They make us remember the things that define what country living is, as they exclaim over our garbage disposal systems or how far we are from town…
And they laugh with us and make the world a better place…
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And our friends?
I hope their memories are as filled with colour and delight as ours …
7 Comments
debby
BB, your pictures always capture the joy of the moment so perfectly. I love them(and your little dogs too….)
jeanie
Glad they (all) had a great stay!
From one who used to take ALL day to get there on the other side of the back seat, ping-ponging the heavy brother’s head.
Pencil Writer
Wow! Great pictures, stories, fun. Thanks for sharing. The country is so–settling. May God bless us all to enjoy the peace of country life–in whatever doses we can!
Andrea
I just love it when I get visitors! It’s so much fun. And I too do not miss the city at all. At one time I could not imagine being far away from it, and now I don’t ever look back. Wonderful photos! The one of the man with the kids on his feet up in the air, we call that the Superman! My kids love it!! LOL!! Fun pictures!
A Novel Woman
I love your blog!! And you take some fantastic photos.
And is it wrong of me to gloat that just as you are getting frost, our tulips and lilacs are opening?
Bush Babe (of Granite Glen)
Debby – thanks and more puppy pics in the next couple of days!
Jeanie – yes that back seat used to get awfully busy with little brother spread from one side to the other: the price we paid for getting a window seat! Hopefully all our visitors enjoy their “change of scene” these days!
PW – I have to admit that the country life is only settling so far as you let it be. My visitors actually gift me with the chance to stop for a few moments and take in what is around me… it’s easy to be so busy you miss it (same as the city!).
Andrea – Dash loved that move but got the giggles every time our visitor tried to balance Dash’s tummy on his feet. We all fell about in tears…
Rhea
You know you have true friends who are willing to drive so far to see you! You are blessed!
And, your friends who don’t stop, have their kids quietly vomiting into containers and have the tree minute pee break…that’s scary! lol
What a wonderful post!