Town or Country?

[santaman2000]

Middle of nowhere here.

You're in Indian Springs, Nevada!?

 

[Willowisp]

Quite lucky with my place. I live on the outskirts of a medium city (100k people) and can reach my neighbouring woods within ~ 30-45 minutes good walking.
Open fires and overnighters are not allowed around here, however, so I have to be careful with what I do when out and about.

 

[oldtimer]

Thanks for all the replies. It seems like a real mix of situations. Perhaps the dominant theme is experience of both settings. Quite few, like me, seem to have spent time on the edge of urban areas. I was brought up on the outskirts of Portsmouth with Farlington Marshes on the doorstep. In the late 1940s and early 50's this was a wild, uninhabited place of excitment for a small boy to roam and there were still plenty of wooded areas nearby. Most weekends were spent camping in the New Forest or elsewhere with parents and later on my own camping in any wild place I could find in reach by bike. Perhaps that's why I'm a fan of Robert Macfarlane who points out that there are many wild places close to urban areas.

Several replies suggest that, as I had suspected, many of us live where we do for work reasons rather than by choice. We lived on the edge of Cambridge for most of our working lives. Great city, but not so good for countryside. Nomadic summer holidays in the wilder parts of Europe helped. As did a two-year job in the tropics with a ten week trip across the US from Florida to California and back with only four nights in all not spent in wilderness areas sandwiched in between.

I married a Londoner born in Hampstead and after 50 years I've nearly got her to the stage of preferring country to city. I don't think I'll let her see Treadlighly's post as it might set me back a bit!

 

[treadlightly]

I married a Londoner born in Hampstead and after 50 years I've nearly got her to the stage of preferring country to city. I don't think I'll let her see Treadlighly's post as it might set me back a bit!

You're doing well. After 23 years I have made virtually no progress on that front.

 

[Gaudette]

Live on the outskirts of Coventry so can be in the sticks in 5 mins which is nice. Given the chance i would move to the North Norfolk coast but its just not practical with the amount of traveling for work.

We are in the same boat. Love North Norfolk but not practical at the moment.

 

[Kerne]

As Leadbelly said:

Sometimes I lives in the country
Sometimes I lives in the town
Sometimes I gets a great notion
To jump in the river and drown...

Can't afford to live in the country round here near enough to get to work - the Cotswolds is well expensive! But I live only 30 mins walk from the wooded Cotswold edge where I can see roe deer, bimble in the woods and be generally bushy. A 30 min drive in the other direction gets me to the Forest of Dean (fallow deer and wild boar!).

I was brought up in South Wales and Ireland where the "countryside" was on my doorstep then lived in London for 15 years. I reckon i've got a decent compromise now - until I win the lottery and can move!

The problem IMHO (certainly "dahn sarf") is that large parts of the countryside have become expensive dormitories for those with well-paying jobs in towns and cities. On the other hand, if I got paid more, I'd probably join them...

 

[Gaudette]

Born and bred in a north Wales village, I now live in London, but get out to the countryside every chance I get.

On the subject of bimbles, I did a six hour one in the snow today with the dog, walked from my house to a two mile long section of former railway line turned into a walkway which is in effect like a long woodland edge, and which is at the top of my road, across Highgate village onto Hampstead Heath, lunch and a couple of great pints at my favourite pub, then back home the way I came. OK, so its not a rural wander but pretty good given I was inside the north circular.

I know this route a blast from the past.

 

[Kerne]

Born and bred in a north Wales village, I now live in London, but get out to the countryside every chance I get.

On the subject of bimbles, I did a six hour one in the snow today with the dog, walked from my house to a two mile long section of former railway line turned into a walkway which is in effect like a long woodland edge, and which is at the top of my road, across Highgate village onto Hampstead Heath, lunch and a couple of great pints at my favourite pub, then back home the way I came. OK, so its not a rural wander but pretty good given I was inside the north circular.

There are some really quiet out of the way routes in London if you look for them.

When I lived in London, I lived in Walthamstow and had a cracking route into the city - along the Lea Valley to the Hertford Cut on the canal system then follow that through Bethnal Green and Victoria Park to pick up the canal to Islington. Superb route with a real feeling of being out of the city. A variation was to continue south through Stratford to the Thames - amazing sense of solitude in the busy city.

 

[Gaudette]

Country - done cities - don't like them - people, like chickens, should be free range not battery farmed.

Primates may be social animal - but in nature that means family groups and small groups of families - not millions packed together cheek by jowl.

Well put I was having the same conversation with some of my wife's girlfriends the other night. I lit a fire with the flint and steel I got off Milus2 ( thanks again)! They all had a go but it was the high maintenance friend that I ended up with. She couldn't understand why she was blown away with " a little bit of fire." In the end the conversation got quite deep but the essential point I was trying to make was we have lost touch with where we came from and where we belong.

 

[wicca]

I live in a kind of twilight world.. Depending on the state of tide, I can either easily see this..looking to starboard

Or this..to Port.. I'm berthed alongside a big Motor Cruiser which blocks my view of the river on a high tide...No complaints though, if I get tired of these views, I'll move...

 

[blacktimberwolf]

London born & bred, lived 8 years in Paris, a year in Exeter (which I enjoyed)............
& moved here 20 years ago

Pig sick of it at times but you'll have to drag me kickin' 'n' screamin' to go & live in a town again.

 

[BJJJ]

Born and bred in London, now live in North Wales with sea views and hills at the back. I consider myself very fortunate despite the 160 mile round trip to work.

 

[Laurentius]

Live on the outskirts of Coventry so can be in the sticks in 5 mins which is nice. Given the chance i would move to the North Norfolk coast but its just not practical with the amount of traveling for work.

Me too, on the northern outskirts of Coventry.

 

[Mick w.]

Hey Oldtimer, I know that area around Farlington marsh and Havant very well, having lived 'dahn sahf' for seventeen years - most of it on the much maligned Leigh park estate. I raised a family there and spent many pleasant hours down on the marsh, or in Havant thicket watching deer, adders, wood peckers, slow worms and the like. I also used to cycle out to Kingley Vale and the downs which was always good. Oh, and Queen Elizabeth CP...
Never made it out to the new forest as much as I should have, which is something I regret as I'm back up in my northern homeland now. A small town/large village, surrounded by moorland and on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales and within easy reach of urban areas if I want (which I don't!)

 

[hog]

Live here so quite rural.