Living in Nature

Yesterday while messing around Jared drew me a picture of where he would like to live. He drew a sun, trees (nature), the ocean, a house and a garden with flowers and vegetables. Then he drew some people to hang out with, and a car to drive to the city or other places to meet other people and for work. I was pretty thrilled by this little pictures of stick figures. Jared has always lived in cities and has been more reluctant to spend much time in nature. This has been changing though and now he also enjoys being in nature and out of the city as well.

Living in Cape Town has been my most citified experience of the places I've lived. We live in an apartment on the 6th floor of a building with a little balcony where my native Erica plant lives. Inside I have a handful of other plants, but I've missed having a garden and being closer to nature. I can hear the traffic outside nearly all the time. Walking around involves busy streets and loud cars.

There are definite benefits to where we live though. It's easy to get to town, easy to get to shops, and fairly easy to use the public transport system if I can figure out how to get to where I want to go (of the trains, buses, and minibus taxis it's not coordinated and there are only maps of train routes, its been very frustrating). Another benefit has been the amazing view of Table Bay from our apartment.

But I think overall I'd prefer to live somewhere quieter with a garden where I can grow some of my own food, play with plants, and easily walk into nature.