an impending sense of maturity

I can finally recognise my maturity with a sense of impending doom – and I aren’t referring to the rapidly appearing grey hairs.

It’s odd, but when I live in the city, I appreciate all that it has to offer, yet I still miss little things about the countryside too…

I miss my dog and his freckles – the way he licks my glasses when I lay on the floor (he never used to lick my eyes before I had glasses – I just guess he thinks he’s amusing).

I miss being able to go and pick my own fruit and vegetables. At home I have access to herbs, vegetables and fruit from the orchard. There’s nothing quite like feeling hungry while messing around in the garden and helping yourself to an apple, a couple of plums and some fresh brambles. In a similar thread, I love having access to nice cooking equipment. Nothing beats heavy cast iron pans and griddles to cook fresh food in. At university I hate having to do supermarket shopping for meat, vegetables and eggs. At home our butcher comes to us, and I hate having polystyrene wrapped meat. I have no problems with preparing my own meat from the animal (I’m by no means a prissy girl), I just think it would upset people in a communal kitchen at university if they walked in and found 2 brace of pheasants hanging from the ceiling for a week.

I miss the smell of the countryside and the sound of birdsong, I miss driving in the rain late at night while being actually able to have full beam headlights on and reach 60 mph. I can’t see I’d ever have legally managed that at university….


Mostly, I guess I just appreciate what I have while I’m here – even if my accent has got stronger lately.
I’m still looking forward to university though!