Saturday, May 16, 2009

A PLACE I CALL HOME

Road into my township - the mad rush of traffic to the city lies just beyond.
Double storey terrace houses line the inner roads.
Plenty of trees planted 7 year ago by the developers.
Kids are out on their bikes by 6 pm - note the setting sun.
Its shorts and T-shirts everyday.
When I read the blogs I have been following, I am a bit envious of the acres of land. There is just miles of greenary with creeks and rivers in your photos and I just wonder what it's like to wake up, go out the front door and see all that space. Breath-taking must be the only word for it.

I live in a township about 20 km from the city. The houses are a mixture of terrace and semi-Ds (semi-detached where 2 houses are connected by one wall). There isn't acres of land, we measure our land in square feet. If I walk 9 normal human paces to the left of my house, I already hit my neighbour's wall. We share roads, drains and playgrounds.
Us mothers having our evening exercise. In the evenings, the boys ride from house to house.
MartianGirl and her Great Escape - Martians never use gates.

Living in a community with so many neighbours has many benefits. The kids meet at each others home or at the playground every evening. MartianGirl makes her get away at 5 pm and does not return till 7 at night. Many times I have caught her sneaking out by 4 pm even before her homework is finished. During the weekends, she is out by 3pm. She is quite safe wandering around, as we look out for each other's kids and pets. I have rescused Crystal, a top poodle, from the fish pond when the kids were too engrossed playing, and settled squabbles in the playground. The kids get fed with cakes, buns, fruits, chocolate, ice cream and what ever else is available in the different homes. I have chips on standby for the forever hungry troops. It is amazing how fast they drop in, wish a polite "Hello Aunty," grab some food or a cold drink and their skinny legs are rushing out the gate. At 7 pm, all mothers "chase" the kids home for their dinner and homework - it's an unwritten rule. Life here seems very different from the farm.

7 comments:

  1. Its is very different! I am a wee bit claustrophbic so would have a hard time living in a closed in space like that. But We have always lived in the country! When I was first married We lived in a small town of 650 people. It was almost as quiet as living in the country. Where I grew up has had a lot of people added in the last 10 years but used to only be about 7 or so families in the area. Now its about 3 times that.
    I used to look out my front door on to 260 acres that had Nothing on it. Except a small travel trailer back in the woods that the owner would come and hunt on. Then had 50+ acres around our house and some extended family owned about 300acres around that. It was quiet most of the time and then pieces were sold off here and there and it got Noisy!! lol Well for us anyway..
    Here on the farm we are less then a mile from town and its so noisy... We still dont know if we like it.. there is a serious lack of privacy. But I am not use to people being basically in my backyard..
    I like space!!! Lol Thanks for the pictures of were you live it was very interesting!

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  2. It was nice to read about your township. You're not alone in that kind of environment. I live in the suburbs of a city, although fields and rivers are within easy reach so it is less clustered than a town or a city. The view from my window is just houses but when I walk out I can see down the view from the top of my hill to the fields beyond. I do have a very large garden at the back so that's a blessing.

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  3. The key is to love where you are. And it looks like you do. The energy of being surrounded by people can be just as wonderful as the sound of a creek.

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  4. Why use a gate when you can climb a fence....I would do the same :-)

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  5. Thanks for all the comments, I love open spaces and would't mind a place like yours, Tonia or if I can't, a view like Val's would be great. But granted I am a city girl, I have to agree with carolyn - Home is where the heart is and the heart is where the family is. I love the neighbourhood community. MartianGirl is so happy someone has the same wavelength as her, thanks Amanda

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  6. Thanks for visiting me over at my place! We have five acres, about one of them are woods and the other four are open grass and yard. We do look out our windows and doors every day thinking how blessed we are and enjoying every moment of our space! We've not always had this much space--just in the last two years. We joke sometimes about setting up a mini-golf course or soccer ball field or such things and charging admission!

    I admire your gardening efforts. You may be doing more and better with less space for gardening that we're doing in our gardening attempts with lots of space for our gardens!

    Come back to visit me any time!

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  7. Before I even read your post I looked at your photos and thought how beautiful it was - the sense of community is fantastic - you don't need acres and acres of green to feel blessed. And imagine not having to wear coats and scraves all the time - now that is worth its weight in gold! x

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