do we live in the country or the city?

A question that came up from two people via email was if we live in the city or the country?

Both, actually. We do most of our living in the country on our parents farms and hang our hats at the end of the day in the city in this house. Because it's north facing, blooming flowers are only planted on the east side (left side of this picture, hidden behind our truck) where there's enough morning sun to grow my grandfather's favourite lilies. All the rest of the blooms are in the backyard. I love gardens. Love them. Lots. And lots. I would happily quadruple the size of them at this house and then some if we had the space. Ironically, I only have issues with rabbits raiding my garden here in the city, no problems out on the farm.

The front shade garden is limited to ornamental grasses, a variety of hostas and some sedum. The tall stand of bamboo grass on the right of the living room window grows up to 10 feet by the end of the growing season. Until 2 years ago there was a massive Colorado Blue Spruce in front of the windows on that tiny speck of lawn. It was encroaching the property line and that was an issue with our previous next door neighbour so we had to saw it down. It was gorgeous and regal and we didn't mind that it hid most of the front facade from the street. We decorated it at the farm for Christmas. Well, the top 14 feet of it anyway. And it was wide. We tied in it's branches as best we could with baler twine and used brute force to shove it through the doors to get it inside the house. It was so heavy it needed a custom made tree stand my husband welded out of 7/8" steal.

This place was the closest house we could buy to my parents farm where we keep our critters. It was the closest house to the farm 15 years ago but now the city has grown up between us. The adage "location, location, location" was absolutely true and it's biggest selling feature. We call this place our "Postage Stamp" because of it has no land.

I realize now that talking about our horses, baling hay, chickens, the tractor and other farm related things gives the impression we're currently residing on a farm. Our city neighbours enjoy having a handy farm guy living on the street and aren't in a hurry to see us move. Right now it works for us to live here. The kids are in school/college nearby and active in sports and recreational endeavours. Work, shopping and hospitals are all right here as are lots of restaurants (even if we almost never eat out) and access to most all city amenities and coffee shops. We have multiple Tim Horton's, Starbucks, Second Cup and Williams Coffee Pubs. Ontario people have a big thing for their coffee 'n donut shops.

My parents have a beautiful century stone farm house build in 1855. We're there several times a day. Everyday. Our kids were raised as country kids. They enjoy pleasures and chores citified kids aren't exposed to. They help us take care of the landscaping, barns, equipment, horses and livestock. Mom and dad don't have a dog anymore but our 3 romp around there every day. We love every minute we spend at the farm. Well, sometimes mucking stalls not so much...

So do we live in the country on a farm or the city? Yes. To both. It's the best of of both worlds. We reside in the city, but we're country folk.