A little bit country.....

I'm not a country girl, not really. I may live in the country for now, but in truth, it's not my natural habitat. So consequently, and usually when I'm in the presence of the properly countrified, (those who love, appreciate and enjoy rural life and country pursuits), I feel like a bit of an interloper. I find myself listening, slightly detached, to enthusiastic discussions with a mixture of envy and genuine puzzlement, because I just don't get it myself.

For instance, the keeping of chickens in your back garden. Why would I do that? Why? The housing and feeding of scratchy, noisy birds just so that I can get a few eggs? I can buy half a dozen of them, organic, free range for £1.20. (Random related question- what IS the difference between a chicken and a hen? Anyone? If you know, please fill me in because I'm afraid to ask!)

Now that's MY kinda welly!!

Or the hunting thing? With the exception of fox hunting, I'm not claiming any moral high ground here. It's the 'tramping through cold, wet fields for hours just to take out a few ducks or pheasants' part that I struggle to understand. Aside from the donning of a quilted coat and designer wellies, where's the pleasure in that? I don't even LiKE the taste of duck.

Between you and me, and until quite recently, I had long nursed a Jilly Cooper fuelled hope, that horseriding might have been MY particular country pursuit...But alas! After an hour of bouncing around a field, with every horsing accident I'd ever heard of on a constant loop in my head, and my pelvic floors battered beyond belief, I've had to face the fact that this too was not to be. Thankfully,I'm comforted by the reassuring knowledge that my new pony skin handbag will fulfill all of my equine needs from here on in.

Don't get me wrong, there are lots of great things about living in the country- the space around us, the head clearing walks, the tight community, the relative silence...and erm, lots more...just give me a minute to think...I realize that I sound like a walking,talking townie cliche but you've caught me on a cold January day! Ask me in July and I'll have you moving from that three bed semi to the sticks in no time.

A friend who sometimes rather comically, mixes up her sayings, advised me 'to weigh up the prawns and the cons of situation'. But THATs a Pandora's box for another day. In the meantime, I'm off for that bracing walk-who needs Starbucks anyhow?!