Out In The Country

Today I can use that great Scottish word dreich.  It is indeed a dreich day and looking out my window you wouldn't know the sea was out there.  The mist is clinging to the hill and it has rained off and on.  Thankfully we were invited for morning tea with the in laws and her mother, the lovely Elsie still driving at 92. We had cheese scones which are becoming a luxury food item with the price of cheese.  A kilo of tasty cheese can sell for  $20.  The brother in law lives ten minutes drive away and is surrounded by apple orchards, grape vines and vegetable growing.  His back neighbour has just announced he is selling his grape vines and land to an apple grower.  He will continue to live in his house and have a garden and sheds.  All rural living New Zealanders have sheds.  His grapes are in the blip.  All that infrastructure will be ripped out and young apples planted.  The brother in laws hobby vines will be the reminder of what the land was used for.  Suburban dwellers like me talk about downsizing to smaller houses or the dreaded (just my opinion) lifestyle village for older persons.  This morning I learned that rural people also face decisions about what to do at retirement age.  

Changes        David Bowie 

. . .  Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes
Turn and face the strange
Ch-ch-changes
Ooh, look out, you rock 'n' rollers
Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes
Turn and face the strange
Ch-ch-changes
Pretty soon now you're gonna get older
Time may change me
But I can't trace time
I said that time may change me
But I can't trace time