the "leaving behind" was fairly thorough - a way of life, expectations, family, friends, - the "arriving to" was similarly thorough. filled with opportunity (which my family took full advantage of and put to good purpose) and change on a grand scale - if the lives of four people and all that they did, and are still doing could be termed "grand". the incredible fortune i have experienced in my life and especially the fortune i have been able to offer my children is a direct result of my hard work which in turn has been built on my parent's hard work.
you could say i'm grateful for the incredible risk my parents took in undertaking this journey. it wouldn't really begin to articulate my gratitude.
speaking of journeys, i recently got to visit a farm in the nearby cavan hills on an early june afternoon. the farm has all sorts of stories and some are written in the colours and textures that i found scattered around. it took me three walks around the property as well as a couple of walks through the barns to start to get a feel for the place. it's a good feeling. really good.
there's a really different feel about old canadian farms as compared to old english farms. it's hard to put into words but it's got something to do with the presence of old contented energy compared to a younger more restless energy.
i'll share a few images with you today . . .
painted wooden walls . . .
and mortared fieldstone . . . 
make for a beautiful combination . . .
that you can feel in your mind's hands as you run them over the paint-peeling dry warm wood and the sometimes soft, sometimes rough, cool weathered fieldstone.
12 comments:
Hi Steven
aren't we the lucky ones... to have had the benefit of two homelands...
the opportunities of a new frontier...
Happy days
hi delwyn, we really are the lucky ones . . . i don't know if i would have the same courage given the same opportunity but you never know until you're inside that moment . . . . have a lovely day! steven
We came to Au in our mid 20s with one baby and left all relatives behind, and forged our own business, and have had no family close for all the time of raising 4 children which was hard, but then there have been so many incredible advantages in living in this land of opportunities and wonder.
We came out of choice for a better lifestyle, many other immigrants like in Canada are here for economic and political reasons.
Happy Days
Some touching thoughts about family and exploring the unknown!
Great pics as well Steven.
Yes! Old contented energy! I know just what you mean. What an excellent way to describe it. Two years ago, I visited my ancester's old homestead farm in rural Indiana. My ggg grandfather set up farming there in the early 1840s. I could feel those same soft, mellow energies.
hi delwyn, i admire your courage - i really do!! leaving behind your "support system" and doing all that you have done (and still are doing) leaves me gobsmacked! my mum and dad knew that we needed to improve our lot in life - we probably couldn't have been much worse off to be honest - and it was canada, iceland or south africa. it wasn't all smooth sailing and i still remember my poor mum's awful homesickness but we have enjoyed incredible fortune through the move here. have a peaceful day! steven
hey sid, you know it's funny but i still have pangs of homesickness for england. i went "home" every year until i became a teacher at which point my travels stopped. i have a very arms-length sense of england now. romanticized to be really honest. i love the north of england - the cities and the countryside and i love dorset. but the england i know is tucked away. thanks for the compliments about my pictures sid. i have more from that day coming up. steven
hey willow, i think it's extraordinary that you were able to visit the home your ggg g set up. there's something so comforting and real about old farms, almost as if it seems possible that they'll outlast the homes in the towns and cities that are slowly creeping up on them and know that there's no need to worry about anything as long as you put in a good day's work and love this world the right way!!! steven
Steve,
If you ever come across an old tractor on one of your barn tours, be sure to take pictures of it too. Or better yet, come get me and I will. To me, one of the great treasures to uncover is a relic tractor from way back when, sitting along a fence line, under a bail of hay or in the corner of a barn, full of stories. My dear wife fully expects to find one in our garage someday.
Paul
hi paul, actually,this barn had an old vw beetle, a golf, a couple of indeterminate but older cars, several boats, odds and ends of furniture but not one tractor!!! I recall the magic of tractor rides when i grew up in england. we used to visit a dairy and sheep farm and the farmer had a couple of lovely old machines. now i am curious. what happened to the porsche 914 dream paul? not replaced by a tractor?!!!!! steven
I have a long list of "life's simple pleasures" but only so much room in my garage. Maybe I can compromise and buy an old Porsche tractor. They actually made tractors at one time! Lamborghini still does (yes, THAT Lamborghini!)
Paul
i knew about lamborghini - it was where they began before they built the exotic cars they build today. i didn't know about porsche but then i've never been a big fan of them -except for the 914. i bet you could slip a porsche tractor onto your list sometime . . . just leave it on the street - who's going to take that?!!! steven
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