"I once owned a farm in Africa"

Last Friday I drove up to Connecticut for a clinic. From my home it takes about 10 hours give or take depending on traffic. I have to admit I don't mind traffic jams so much anymore. I think it is because when I am sitting in traffic my Prius is not using any fuel. It sits quietly, no loud motor noise and waits patiently for the cars to crawl along. I am mostly running on battery when the traffic is really slow but there is something in that quiet that takes the stress away. Pretty amazing since I used to be the kind of drive the fussed and fumed by the slow moving cars....

Another of my favorite things to do on a long drive is listen to books on my iPod. I can plug my iPod into my car stereo system so it plays through the car's speakers. This time I purchased "Out of Africa". I have never read the book but of course, seen the movie. As I was browsing through iTunes looking for something to while the hours away I found this book. I listened to the sample for a moment and realized the readers voice was perfect. A lovely woman with a British accent. As she read the words a vivid image of the area of the Ngong Hills was painted in my mind. I have been in the town of Karen and seen some of Karen Von Blixen's furniture at Giraffe Manor so it was about time I "read" the book.

The hours slid by as I was bathed in the sights and sounds of old Kenya. On my return home the book ended just as I pulled up to the house. How perfect I thought that I don't have to drive around the block or find some excuse the next day to go for a drive to hear the end.

Today I looked at my zinnia seeds beginning to sprout in their trays. They are almost ready for planting. I thought of those words and thought "I once owned a farm in Virginia and on the farm I had planted 3 flats of zinnias..." Somehow the feeling of story and that lifestyle surrounded me in my own home with my little garden. The sense of the land and its beauty so strongly influencing my life here near the hills of the Blue Ridge Mountains on this perfect, lovely clear, blue sky day.