Early Morning with Wildflowers

early-morning-wildflowersWildflowers

Daily Photo

Delicate flower with a tough name–Rockbreaker

This flower is a Saxifrage. Here is another. These plants have similar names but are different in essential ways. In the same way a county person or an outdoorsy person are types of folks often confused for each other—people often think these words describe the same type of person but they don’t.

A wonderful woman I know is outdoorsy.She kayaks, rafts, hikes, bikes, plays volleyball and goes for long walks.She is constantly playing in the rural landscape and is in the best shape of almost anyone I know. But she is not a country woman.

I am a country woman but not outdoorsy. I love the countryside and I do go for long walks but I can spend whole days curled on a couch with a book and feel satisfied. And, I have lived around ranches and out in the boonies most of my life, I have picked up a few points of view that aren’t common in most of America and aren’t necessarily held by outdoorsy folk.

The simplest way to illustrate this is to give an example. One day my friend took her two beloved dogs on a walk in the desert. When she came back, she described how, as they topped a hill, the dogs had spied a herd of cows grazing. Excited and barking madly, the two happy creatures bounded madly after the cattle. Reluctantly she called them in because, as she explained, she worried the dogs might get cactus spines in their feet.

If you are a country person, there is something you would be thinking about long before you worried about thorns. What is it?

PAUSE.

Answer:  No country person would let their dog chase someone else’s animals. We’ve all been raised on tales of sheep with their throats ripped out, horses hamstrung, and cows with broken legs. We’ve seen baby fawns taken down and torn apart by packs of normally friendly family pups. We don’t want to cause that pain to another animal. We don’t want to financially cripple a hard working farmer whose prize ram is worth more than a new pickup.

She’s not a bad or thoughtless woman. In fact, she’s funny, intelligent, and caring. She just hasn’t lived with the practical consequences of life in rural areas long enough. If she stays around ranches, she’ll learn about dogs. . . (and maybe even about guns.)

________________

Speaking of guns, I’m willing to bet that country people are some of the few to be willing to cut this woman some slack. Not that I agree with her but I’m willing to bet she’s neither crazy nor mean just country raised.

CONFESSION: I stole this piece from a year ago.

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11 Comments
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bluelaker4
Guest
bluelaker4
15 years ago

I remember the piece from before. I’m not sure how I would be described except I know that “outdoorsy” is not it. I like the country, and I like town. I live in a very small town with my back fenceline being the city limit and the pasture behind the fence being the country.

I absolutely love this photo. Very simple, and very striking.

TjandMark
Guest
15 years ago

Interesting comparisons. I am still thinking about it. Outdoorsy and country. Of course, one could be both, I imagine, and the two would have a lot in common. Striking photo, as usual Kym.

Joe Cornish
Guest
15 years ago

The country never really leaves the person. I grew up on a farm in Nebraska and I still feel the pain that morning I came out to find all of my chickens dead. They had been killed by a neighbor’s running dog.

That’s why I understood when my own dog Susie disappeared overnight. I knew she had started running at night; I had seen the blood around her mouth in the morning. It wasn’t the country way back there to tie or cage animals up. Once they started running, they had to go. Still, that was painful too.

I carry all of this with me. At heart I’m still a country person.

Indie
Guest
15 years ago

YAY! I’m a country girl! I was thinking, “Crap, her dogs are going to spook those cattle.” and “Somebody’s gonna get hurt” (dogs, friend, cattle).

The wildflower photo is beautiful.

Staff
Member
15 years ago

Bluelaker, How ’bout small town girl? ;>

Tj and Mark, You can definitely be a country person and be outdoorsy (many are) but there is a difference to my mind though they do have a lot in common and a city person might not be able to tell the difference at 1st or even second glance.

Joe, I’m not surprised to find you a country person. You have a naturalness and honesty that I tend (Not always true but often enough) to associate with country.

Indie, Yay–high five. More country girls!!! er…women.

Bunny
Guest
Bunny
15 years ago

You’re funny…. this years photo is better.

Staff
Member
15 years ago

Thank you, Bunny, I agree.

rvewong
Guest
15 years ago

Right on. I would also add that it seems easier for the country folk to apprehend the position of the city folk than vise verse.

Staff
Member
15 years ago

I agree, I think that is because our culture is slanted to the city folk viewpoint so we country folk are inundated with their opinions–I don’t mind that too much. I just wish that there was some more effort to see the rural side of things.

MJEAN
Guest
MJEAN
15 years ago

A beautiful photo – like piourette posed ballerinas caught in nature’s spotlight.

Staff
Member
14 years ago

Where were you when I was trying to find a title? That is beautiful!