Recently I drove through a portion of the eastern Ontario countryside from Ottawa to the Cornwall area. I purposely took the back roads to enjoy the beautiful greenery of the local farms along the way. As well as the scenery, believe it or not, I love the smell associated with the farmland. I attribute this to my heritage.
My maternal grandparents were farmers. They are long gone from this world, but never from my memories. The farmhouse they lived in has since been renovated and just a portion part of their land still worked by family members. Down the road from the farmhouse is the cemetery where these grandparents, as well as both of my own parents, and numerous aunts, uncles and cousins are buried.
The main purpose of this recent (road) trip down memory lane was to clean up the memorial garden in this cemetery. It was overgrown with weeds and other invasive plants. Thanks to the help of a friend, an aunt and a cousin, we managed to rid the garden of unwanted greenery. With a few new perennials added as well as the soil and mulch replenished, it looks much better. I wish I had thought to take a “before” picture; this is the “after”…
In between the sweltering hot jobs of weeding and adding the new plants, soil and mulch I took a “cool off” break in the form of an opportunity to meet up with a childhood friend with whom I had recently reconnected with on Facebook. Isn’t it amazing how you can catch up on 30+ years in an hour?
The scenery and yes, the smell of the farmland too, were added bonuses.
Lovely, Lori! Good of you to do that.
Thank you Lori for posting. A friend of mine’s son volunteers at a local farm and she drops him off at 5am every morning so the first time I got into her car she was apologising for the smell. Imagine her shock to learn that I not only smiled but told her of the long-ago car rides down the long and winding roads to the farm.