My Acre

I just looked through an old notebook of mine and found a little piece called "My Acre". I can't remember why I wrote this, it was either a writing exercise, or a psychological one. Either way, I'll let it speak for itself.

My Acre
By Leah Chisholm

My acre starts with a long winding dirt path that runs from the gate to the cottage in the far corner of the acre.

The cottage is made of stone and has a main floor, a basement and a small attic. In the attic is a tiny room with a window that looks over the acre. It has a double-sized bed with down pillows, a down comforter, and a brightly-coloured hand-made quilt. Also in the room is a large wardrobe with a full-length mirror, a chest of drawers, a coat stand, and a large wooden chest at the foot of the bed. The window had plain white curtains with tie-backs and a cushioned window-seat.

The kitchen of the cottage has an enormous spice-rack and herbs drying from the rafters. It was lots of room for many people.

The living room is the biggest room of all. It has a wood-burning fireplace, colourful plush carpets, and squashy armchairs and couches. The walls are filled with books and where there are no books, you can see the stone walls. In one corner is a guitar and a cupboard with several musical instruments.

During the day, the house is sunny and bright and welcoming. At night, it is warm and cozy, lighted by firelight.

From the living room, a door leads outside. To the left is a small vegetable garden and a handful of apple trees. Just enough apple trees to be able to pollenate and bear fruit. To the right of the house is a small garden with a trellis arch, but no fence. This garden is wild-looking with minimal pruning or gardening and little-to-no space between the different flowers and shrubs. The garden has a path made of smooth pebbbles and old-fashioned benches scattered here and there. It also has a sundail on a pedestal. Almost everything is covered with ivy.

In another corner of my acre is a HUGE oak tree with lots of climbable branches for when one feels adventurous and a swing hanging from a low brance for when one is not. In front of the oak tree, between the tree and the dirt path to the cottage is a small lake/pond with ducks, a swan or two and plenty of frogs. There are cattails and reeds growing along the sides of most of the pond, but a few sandy, reed-less places for wading and swimming.

In the last corner of the acre, opposite the path from the lake, is nothing but open field with long grass, wildflowers,butterflies, grasshoppers, crickets, and various small animals to be spotted, like rabbits, moles, fieldmice, etc.

The fence that surrounds my acre is a low stone wall, much of the wall is bordered with gorse bushes with peaches-and-honey blossoms and thorns to keep out unwanted intruders.

No matter how many vsitors are in my acre, there is always a place where I can be alone if I need to be: in my bedroom, the orchard, the garden, the oak tree, the field.

The perfect day in my acre would involve waking up in the bedroom next to my best beloved with the sun shining and the gorse blossoms sweet smell pouring through the open windows. We would have all the time in the world to lie in bed, make love, and drink in the morning.

When we were good and ready, we would head to the kitchen to bake some bread, which we would eat with fresh apples, cheese and milk. We would spend the afternoon gardening or fishing or some other idle pasttime.

In the evening, all of our dearest friends (and some new ones as well) would gather in our cottage for food, music, dancing, and generally good times, that would, of course, spill out into the garden. After all the guests leave, my beloved and I would sit out in the garden on the warm summer night to watch the full moon and stars and hear the crickets chirping and smell the night-blooming wildflowers from the garden and field.


I also found a sweet little list that I wrote for my boyfriend (now ex) just before I left for Korea:

Things I'll Miss About You

-smoking just a little of your flavoured cigars
-our good-natured bickering in the kitchen
-the five million pillows on your bed
-watching you snuggle with Pandora (my cat)
-your manly stubble

It's amazing what you find when you don't really use a notebook for almost a year!