Nothing Changes

"Oh, if I could only make people realise, how full of possibility is the country life, and how rich in blessings." M.R.G. [The Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt book]

I recently received my ordered copy of The Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt book by Laurie Aaron Hird. For several weeks I have, almost furtively, searched the 'Net for comments re this book. I have found patchwork, never realising how interest grows in what seems to many a futile hobby ... cutting up pieces of fabric and sewing them together in some different sort of order.

I have read some of the letters written in 1922 by women who preferred that their daughters did marry a farmer, a man of the land. Perhaps it is because I prefer the quieter life ... though don't get me wrong, a day, or even a week in the city is perfectly fine, but oh, the blessed quietness of the country after the hectic rush of the city, the feeling that one is only a spectator of some crazy fast way of living ... that I was drawn to this particular patchwork sampler quilt.

One letter in part read "The city draws from the home, not toward it." I have two projects well under way, and am fast reaching their completion, simply because I want to have all projects out of the way before beginning this quilt.

Life is so different depending upon where we live.

This morning, as My Man was at an appointment, I sat reading. The view from the car park is downward to the Indian Ocean. The walled harbour provides a sheltered anchorage for boats ... fishing boats, pleasure craft, visiting yachts or catamarans, while on the sandy shore small boats lie upside down looking for all the world like turtles sleeping.

Closer in to the carpark a new housing subdivision stands; pristine, cars parked outside garage doors in a straight ordered line, footpaths not littered with toys or bikes as this area is peopled by mainly older folks. From the distance it looks lovely ... except ... the houses are so close together! I am sure the whistling kettle calling the lady of the house hanging out the washing in for a well-earned cuppa would resound loudly to the neighbours. No, not for me this living so closely to others.

Our closest town, the one with the harbour, has a population just under 5,000; not large, though not small either. The area where we live is a rural area ... about a dozen people live nearby. We look out onto hills where sheep or cattle graze, or where wheat is sown, grows, and is harvested. There is a rhythm to living in the country; even if we don't have more than a few acres.

I am so looking forward to beginning this new project, and as I read the letters from these women of almost a century ago, I recognise where they are coming from, and while many had what many would today call primitive mod-cons, they were happy. I read, I realise how much times have changed, but deep down women still want what is best not only for themselves, but their families.