Gritty Love

I always imagine how much more I could appreciate the springtime in the country. More specifically, my old rural hometown. I drove up there a couple of weeks ago, it was when the weather was unseasonably warm, and it was so beautiful. The sky was a lovely shade of gray with puffy white clouds, and it almost looked like an ocean--a sea-foam grey and pale green body of water.

I remember the farm in the spring, how the flowers and the crab apple trees were a riot of color and perfumed the air with their sweetness. The woods were bursting with ferns, green grass, and the ground was brown and soppy wet from the rains; the willow trees and pine trees were dewy wet, and the forest smelled like dirt and grass, a verdant scent of the earth.

Anyway, I am working on an article about that very subject: how much I miss rural living. I discovered a magazine called Grit. It's been around since 1882, and the magazine is devoted to the celebration of all things rural.

Unlike mags like Country Living, Grit is also for people whose livelihood is tied up in the earth; the farmers and those who not only love the land, but who also live off of it. Along with articles about the city-dweller's existential loneliness caused by being separated from the land, there are informative articles about different types of hogs, and the right tools to use for specific gardening . It's kinda like Mother Earth News, but, well, grittier.

I have fallen in love with Grit, and I'm waiting impatiently for my first issue to come in the mail. So I plan on submitting my article for publication to them soon; needless to say, I'm eager and giddy with the possibility that I could contribute to such a wonderful magazine.

So if you are a lover of farms, land, or anything rural, check out Grit; both online and print versions are available.