Toto, I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore!

My husband picked me up at the Raleigh-Durham, N.C. airport, gave me a kiss and a hug and and whisked me back to Virginia. We played "catch-up" on the nearly two hour drive home. Yes, the cows were doing well and loving the new grass and clover. The renovation on the bathroom was just about complete ( I had wallpapered the bathroom before I left for Wichita and vowed never to do that again, considering my many "Lucy and Ethel" moments with 105" long strips of wallpaper coming down on my head.) It does look beautiful and if I can ever find a new shower curtain and wall hangings, our work will be complete. But I am getting off the track.

Spring had arrived in Virginia while I was in Kansas. The dogwood and cherry blossoms were in bloom and azaleas in bud. The grass turned green almost overnight and the trees were quickly unfolding green lush leaves. Spring in Virginia is like the sweet melody of a song. "Carry me back to old Virginny" ran through my mind, which is just what my husband did.

The view from our back deck is like heaven to me (see picture). Trees, pasture and often a cow or two as far as the eye can see. It is a tranquil retreat for me at the beginning and end of the day. In between is a different story. Living on a farm is work. Plain and simple- it is hard work. In the four years that Andy and I have been married, we have built a barn, put in miles of fencing (he more than "us"), planted trees, started a small herd of Black Angus cattle, and from our own trees, picked cherries and peaches, that I preserved in jars. We have sweated, working side by side to make this property beautiful. The amount of hours that Andy has worked grading road, seeding and fertilizing, fencing and plowing are many. For someone who is retired, there really isn't much rest. He has glaucoma which limits what he can do, but somehow he manages to get the job done. He has help and he has me, although, being a city girl, there are some things I struggle with. But learning to be a farmer has been fulfilling and at the end of the day, when we survey our little farm, it it satisfying to see what we have accomplished.

Now we are painting the house. It is a cedar house with 36 windows and a half dozen doors. The colors are very "earthy." A terra cotta called California Rustic for the house, cream for the windows and around the doors and forest green for the doors. It is a big job, again, we have help but I am in charge of the first floor windows and doors and it is not very much fun. Again, it is the satisfaction of the end result I look forward to. When I hang new wreaths on the front doors and install the new planters full of flowers on the front porch I will take and post a picture.

So, I came home to Ol' Virginia, green with spring and the promise of a long hot summer ahead. With cookouts, bluegrass concerts, camping trips and lots of work to look forward to, I am so glad to be home. In the following posts, I will talk about Virginia, the South and what being "Southern" means to me. So, Toto, we are not in Kansas anymore, but that is OK because the yellow brick road will always lead back there.