ChasingColeridge: The Right Wrong Turn...

Farmstalker is the term I use to describe my love affair with farms that aren't necessarily mine! On any given day, if the weather strikes me just so and things have 'that vibe', I will veer off the beaten path to the Road not normally taken...

A few weeks ago, before the first dusting of snow, there was a huge annual fundraiser. The wife of the Dr. I work for purchased tickets to this fundraiser for everyone in the office. A local private school does a HUGE BBQ chicken dinner every year. She had texted me 'how many tickets would you like for your family? We reserved 4 for you!'

My reply at the time was 'Oh that's ok, I won't really have the time to go' She then informed me no one really stays there many people just go and pick up the dinners like take out..

After looking at my work schedule that week (56+ hours EEEK!) I decided a good take out meal would be wonderful. I graciously accepted the offer. I worked that day and left for the local fairgrounds directly after to pick up 4 dinners to go.

DID I MENTION HUGE FUNDRAISER?

I pulled up, parked and followed the sign to the conservatory where dinner waited. There were women bagging food with military precision! Into my paper shopping bag went 4 of these meals; An ENTIRE HALF of a bbq chicken, a warm baked potato in foil, farm fresh green beans, a biscuit and your choice of apple cobbler or cake for desert!

Laden with food booty and trying to figure out how to get it in the house past 2 perpetually hungry teenage boys, I returned to my car for the short ride home...

The fairgrounds take on a certain fallow appearance when not in summer use. The horse arenas had something going on - a stronghold of horse trailers were tightly parked like covered wagons. A group to its own. Aside from the greenhouse where the bbq took place the rest of the grounds were in a sort of drab repose that only a fall coming on strong can bring. It was a blustery day with leaves a flying. The air smelled damp and there was a chill - the sky was a watered down gray - live here long enough and you know it means a storm is not far off. I headed home with the cozy scent of a traditional meal filling my car.

You see, working so much, I rarely get the time to meander,....to be. There is so much beauty these parts give unconditionally if you only open your eyes. I've been told I see things people miss. For that I am grateful. Many times in my life I had felt as though I missed things...and somewhere on my journey I made a conscious pact with myself to try to be 'in the moment' when such a moment presented itself...

The back exit of the grounds treats you to a silo, hand built of stone. You empty onto the back road and pass gracious farm land. If you listen you can hear the toil of labor and wind, when the static of TV and the like did not exist. You hear the fields, you smell the earth, and you see what you might have missed had you not taken that wrong yet cosmically right turn...