Country Folk in the City

My husband and I spent our childhood years running around free on endless acreage.
Living in California, we were not used to seeing typical green pasture type farms.
I was raised on a rugged cattle ranch, surrounded by walnut groves in sunny Paso Robles.
My husband Josh, the son of a marine biologist, grew up about 20 miles west on the coast, on an Abalone Farm.

Abalone?! Even I, a native Californian had never seen or touched a real live slithery Abalone until the first Thanksgiving with my husband's family.
Abalone and Cattle are not so similar, but both my husband and I grew up with a love of nature and the opportunity to taste, smell and delight in the experience of a local farm.

Flo on the Dubost ranch mid-80s:

Josh and his family on the Abalone Farm:

Josh (left) and his brother, Nate.
Not an Ab Farm photo, but SO cute, couldn't resist:

Fast forward a few years, a couple of wedding bands, and a couple of babies later, to Nashville, TN.
We moved for music (there was not a lot of oppurtunity for me as a musician living in a small town) for more affordble living (a chance to own our own property) and to purposefully immerse ourselves in the kind of diversity that can only be found in a large urban setting (definitely not in our small, affluent coastal community).

I immediately fell in love with museums, coffee shops, people of every color and persuasion, and the hustle and bustle of city life.

As much as I loved the city, the part of me that was raised along side cows and crickets longed for a piece of simplicity. A night under a star studded charcoal sky. An afternoon on a hill feeling the wind and hearing it rustle through the tall golden grass.

We bought our first home in the artsy/eclectic neighborhood known as East Nashville.
The moment I saw the house, I knew it was "the one".
Our oldest daughter fell in love with the sprawling dogwood tree out front.
The backyard was flat and spacious, beckoning to be filled with the sounds of our daughters playing, and maybe a sprinkle or two of enough seed to produce a small vegetable garden.

On a cul-de-sac, surrounded by spacious lots, we got as close to our rural upbringing as possible, still being able to make it downtown within 10 minutes.

I felt so thankful as we spent that first evening looking out our front window at the glorious sunset....imagining our children and our own little dreams taking root, and growing on our very own little plot of land.