Roots

Until I married my Lovely Man in 1962, I had no roots to speak of.  My marriage gave me a glimpse of what would be possible in the way of creating a family environment that would leave each member of our family feeling a real and lasting connection to those formative years. I could give them roots!  We were always a “together” sort of family - seeking out ways of spending important calendar events together, celebrating each achievement of its individuals, supporting each other in times of crisis and creating rituals, unique to our family, that would be carried into further generations as a matter of course.
The culmination of this dream for me was when we finally left the farm after 53 years. Each of us strongly felt we needed a token of that place which had underpinned all our life experience until this time.
Collectively, our children decided we should each take a rough sample of the rich red soil that had sustained us in a variety of ways right from the beginning. It has been part of our everyday lives, the foundation of each enterprise - dairying, fruit growing, angora goats, alpacas… 
My Blip today is of my soil sample, tipped to reveal its rugged richness, and spread before it you have glimpses of a fantastic life lived fully and which ultimately has given us all roots. I am so grateful for that. 
If you look closely, you will get a glimpse of Osuzanna with her nephew and niece in the top right hand corner (also in the thumbnail).

My extra is of the weekend before we left the farm, when we collected our samples. Here is our daughter with the help of her gorgeous little boy waiting for my Lovely Man to fill her glass jar.

Thanks to Dollygray for hosting this challenge for Mono Monday.  We seem to have some roots in the same locale.