As you know we live about a mile from a highway and I intended to drive the Free Green Dodge down my little road and to the big road and park it on the family land that borders the highway and sell my asparagus and plants. It is quite a busy little highway. (a car almost every five minutes or so) Legally I can only sell what I grow on the farm FROM the farm I grow it ON. I have to be very careful to be absolutely legal because I am a foreigner, and green card or not, foreigners get different treatment from the police here. They scare me a little. So parking it by the field at the end of our lane would have worked perfectly.
But very quietly, while the bees noisely collected the pollen from the apple blossoms, and I moved my stock about, and brushed Daisy, and watered my plants and picked my asparagus, construction men in their bright orange vests crept out from under their rocks yesterday, and without warning, firmly closed off the highway to the east of my country lane AND the highway to the west of my country lane. Ours is the only house on this lane. 
A mile on each side of my road is closed. To get OUT I have to go backwards and follow a convoluted grid of confusing and endlessly samey country roads. To get HERE anyone will be lost. There will be NO passing traffic on the highway let alone down my country road for most of the summer. No-one will see my fresh vegetables sign and no-one will see my Free Green Dodge truck laden with asparagus and tomatoes and beans and stowaway cats and .. Oh well.
God said No. Such is life. Back to the drawing board. I can let four of the asparagus beds go to fern (it actually is good for them) and just pick the rest for my regular people. I picked 8 pounds yesterday. John has taken most of that to work, his mates have been waiting for the asparagus season. But no selling from the Free Green Truck.
We cannot always determine or predict the turns in our life’s road. Unless you are in road construction then you can cut off other peoples roads with broad smiley unapologetic smiles. I can only drive South down another dusty gravel road. The bridge to the North is gone, fallen into the creek that is now a ditch, no point going in that direction. East and West are closed. So NO-ONE will be coming in THIS direction. 
Kupa and I will become like the faeries. People will think they saw us, but they won’t. They will say, what happened to that woman with the cows that did not match and the sheep that was forever pregnant. Did you ever hear again of that little foreign lady who lived out in the swamp with her dog and all those roosters and her fat pig that would pull a red wagon with a cat sat in it. Sure you heard about that I have the postcard somewhere. And that overgrown garden and the peacocks wild in the trees. You could barely see her house for all those flowers and trees, what she needed was a good lawn mower and a chainsaw.
What ever happened to her? Maybe we should hitch up that old nag and go over the broken fields and see if she is still there. I hear they cut off all her roads. And her husband has been driving in circles for years trying to find his way home. I saw him in the bar the other day. They say she just lives on asparagus and honey and eggs and cheese, waiting for the roads to be finished but that could be years, you know what those road-workers are like. What ever happened to her? Can you remember her name?
Good morning!
It is a calm overcast morning so far and quiet except for the deafening wild birds in my trees. So I guess it is not really quiet. Daisy and Queenie have finally made friends and are standing on the concrete yards waiting to be let out onto the grass. Mama is standing heftily with her head through her gate watching the kitchen doors. Hairy MacLairy is still sleeping. And four cats are lined up on the verandah watching for any sign of movement. I am starting even earlier today so I can get as much done as I can. Time is moving faster lately. TonTon can be heard shuffling at the French Doors, trying to get his nose around the handle to open the door and let everyone in.
Kupa was quiet and sweet all day yesterday. Eventually he allowed me close enough to put some feed on the ledge beside him and then he rose and delicately moved closer to eat. He was sitting on the edge of the nesting box or on his roost every time I checked. He is taking his time. He has a big pen but I think he is used to being in quite a small one as he spent all yesterday in his one wee corner looking out the window, ignoring the bowl of feed on the floor.
Good morning. I hope you have a lovely day.
celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
102 responses to “They have closed my road”
oh bummer! i guess there isn’t a farmer’s market you can sell too? or maybe post flyers and people could contact you to place orders and you could deliver to one spot for pickup? i am sure you have already thought of all these things! kupa looks like he is settling in already!
Those are good ideas tho Branwyn. there was a farmers market here once but no-one went (they prefer to drive thirty miles to walmart) and the ones in the bigger towns are too far away and have not even begun yet, I do not produce enough yet really. But there you are..I still have my egg people who are ordering asparagus and we will get the word out. c
Gah! Don’t you HATE it when the answer is, “No. Not Yours. Can’t.” The parable about the Vines was always my least favorite, being pruned the direction the Gardener wanted you to go instead of growing wild….
At least this time it’s a nip and a clip, and not an outright Renewal Pruning down to the ground…
Have a good day. Hope Kupa acclimates soon!
Kupa is doing well really, and yes I will adjust too. At least with asparagus it is good for it to be put to bed early. Next year will be even better if I stop cutting sooner, so all is not lost! I might just close up four of the beds tomorrow and pick the other four for a while.. c
Brilliant post – I’m still smiling about checking out the crazy lady with pigs and peacocks and too many flowers. Excellent.
They like their lawns around here, a real man mows a lot of lawn!! There are very few flower gardens like ours.. c
Your house sounds purr-fect! If I lived on a farm, I would let most of my lawn grow wild with flowers and tall grasses…. and it would drive the riding-lawn-mowing neighbors CRAZY! 😀
Oh exactly right Tara, they cannot bear unmown grass, they shake their heads at my dandelions, tho them they are appalling, to me they are bee food!!! Lovely to see you.. c
Do you think that Kupa’s been separated from Mrs Kupa, he’s pining away for her, and he’s waiting for the road to open so she can come home?
Good afternoon!
Poor Kupa. No, he has been kept in a cage with only boy peacocks all his life. The guy breeds them to sell so i am sure he was careful.. c
I’m so sorry they closed your road! Maybe it will be a short project.
I am so happy for Kupa! He is going to have such a great life!
Last year they had the same highway closed for five months! John is wild about it as his trip to work every morning now is messed up by miles.. c
Sorry about your road c.
I actually don’t care so much about the road, i hardly go anywhere anyway, it is just such a bore that I have lost the traffic that may have bought the asparagus..c
Don’t they have to give you notice that they are closing a road, what about emergency services getting to you and stuff like that? Wooh, that is not fair !!!! Is there an appeal process? (I am so British sometimes)
– Beautiful Kupa pics
Well emergency services can still get here as long as they come from the south, but frankly on a good day I would not bother with them, an ambulance is miles and miles away anyway.. and if there is a fire, no-one would get here in time. They never do. They get to us too late and then send a bill. My road is still open it is just that you cannot turn right or left, we will go through the intersection and south a mile then turn right or left. The whole countryside is a grid in mile blocks. c
That’s a great setting for a mystery thriller.Roads closed. Can’t get in, can’t get out.One house on the stretch of land. Hmm: Maybe Robert DeNiro will turn up one day and start the story rolling. Be sure you get a good contract for rites to the film.
Ronnie
You are absolutely right Ronnie, this could be a good lead up.. maybe something exciting will happen.. c
Well,leave it to you to turn the negative into a positive and spin a funny story about yourself. Love it. The story. Not the road closing. We were happy when our busy city street closed one summer about 20 years ago. Quiet. Blissful quiet.
Good to hear Kupa is adjusting.
The highway is far enough away not to bother me with noise. It was closed most of last summer too, except for the little mile long stretch on either side of our lane intersection, and now they are back. Ah well.. c
Oh no! But a great metaphorical opportunity for you…..I’m repeating the question from above: no farmer’s market nearby?
The farmers markets have not started up around here yet and also I do not have the quantity. Or the will or time to spend a day selling at a market. I am going to put up the sign anyway and leave bunches in cold water under the shed verandah, get the word out to the neighbours.. c
Oh no! That sucks. In so many ways. Although I’m also asking why. 🙂
They are working on a bridge to my right and building a new bridge to my left, these are small bridges over ditches, but John is still mystified about the one on the right. c
Sounds like a great idea to shut a farm off to the road to build two bridges at the same time, sort of like advanced symmetrical etch-a-sketch! Have fun, I hope you find a solution to your asparagus because it would be a shame to let it go to waste and I, unfortunately, am too far away to ‘help’ you with it. 🙂
At least with asparagus it will not go to waste, I will just let it go to fern which is good for the plant. nothing is wasted around here.. too many mouths c
What a pain – how disappointing! Did have to smile though at the way you are looking at it..you´ll be the mysterious woman who lives in the house….I suppose one advantage is that unless you have visitors really know and love you, you won´t have too many unwanted guests this summer!
There is that tanya, no casual visitors dropping in, i will have disappeared into the mists!! c
That is iniquitous, Celie. I bet they didn’t have the right to close your road without warning, and without providing an alternative. Do you have the equivalent of the French Mairie, where you can go to complain and try to get some improvement in the situation? You should have compensation for all the produce you won’t be able to sell. Maybe you could sell asparagus to the construction workers? Will you be able to take TonTon to visit the Codger on Friday?
I’m glad Kupa is settling in. With your Doctor Doolittle qualities, I’m sure he will be under your thumb very soon!
Oh yes, I can still get out, they have left a gap to drive through the construction, or i just drive back the other way for a few miles and cut across, that idea of selling the asparagus to the construction workers is a good one, maybe I should put a sign down there after all!! c
Such a disappointment about your asparagus ideas. Did you get no warning? What are they doing to make it neccessary to close it anyway? I feel so cross on your behalf! It doesn’t help you in your quest to be green with all that extra driving. Anyway, at least Kupa looks as though he’s happy which of course he should be on your lovely farmy!
Christine
Sorry to hear that, but I would definitely try to find you for your farm fresh produce!
Wouldn’t that be grand.. morning yummy! c