Reminiscing is in the air

[wayfaringwordhack]

It seems these days are days for reminiscing; many are those on my flist who have had recent posts or fleeting mentions of the past just as I myself wished to wander a bit through my own lanes and byways of memory. As asakiyume  puts it at the beginning of her most recent post: I'm "Feeling lonesome for past times: past childhood,.."

That is not to say I'm malcontent with my present, but as I was walking and taking pictures the other day, seeking my touchstone with nature (to borrow from pjthompson ), I happened past a garden that transported me to my childhood New Mexico with its heady aroma of sun-warmed dill.  

(Garden by the Loire)
 

Smelling that pungent herb, I was eleven again, living on an isolated farm, surrounded by Black Angus cattle, wheat fields and rolling plains the color of sage. We were 12 miles from school, 30 from where we went to church, and 60 where we had to go for groceries. Rural, very remote, and I loved it. I loved having my horse grazing the pastures behind the farm, loved spotting a herd of pronghorn antelope, loved watching the epic transformations of cumulus clouds across the boundless blue sky.  

I loved that we had a garden and I never had to go hungry there. I loved the bounty and the work that came with it, shucking corn and shelling peas. I loved my guardian's homemade pickles and pantry full of preserves. I loved that she ground her own flour from wheat her husband grew and gathered eggs from her own hens. When I think of my little family's Someday, that moment when we decide to stop traipsing the world and settle down with a house of our own, I want to have a garden. I know the landscape around it won't be similar to what I knew for those brief years as a child, but I hope the feeling of plenty and contentment will be the same.

(Gentleman gardening by the Loire)

I know the New Mexico I miss is not necessarily a place--it's the time that I was rescued, when my life bloomed, when I found out the world had more in it than roach motels, food stamps, and fear.

I never have and I never will miss West Texas with its air that smells all too often of flatulence from the gas wells, its pumpjacks like skeletal birds, condemned to eternally peck the same bit of barren ground.

I've moved on to different pastures, not always greener, but better, infinitely better.

Ha! Bet you didn't know I was going to sneak in a picture of the Sprout! :P

 

 

Comments

[mindseas.livejournal.com]

Your NM home reminds me of the family ranch I loved when I was a teen. But there were parts of Southern California I hated, and they too had those "skeletal birds."

I love the spacious background in the 2nd photo, which makes it seem as if the man is gardening the World. The third photo has some excellent textures. I could imagine buying different fabrics and sewing them together to replicate it--with corduroy for the farmland rows.

As for the Sprout--she brings to mind this morning's dream of a little baby. I was wondering about her theory of mind because I'd been reading about stages of cognitive development night before. What goes on inside a little child's head is so amazing!

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

I love the spacious background in the 2nd photo, which makes it seem as if the man is gardening the World.

I couldn't agree more. I liked the photo, too, but your description of it brought out the magic.

And yes to the textures! It would be great in a medium that would really showcase them.

What goes on inside a little child's head is so amazing!

I sure wish I could see into her head sometimes!