Town and country

As English author George Eliot knew, something magic happens when the beauty of the country is combined with aspects of town life. I think we have a little of that in our village of Vesuvius on Saltspring Island. The plant-draped Vesuvius store is a tiny piece of town in the country. All photos by John Denniston. 

While we wanted a "country" experience, one of the best parts of our life on Saltspring has been the people we found there. Here's our favourite neighbour, the artist Kathy Robertson, painting my front-yard garden.  A city girl, she settled happily into the natural beauty of Saltspring. Sadly, she died in 2014.

Our living room window provides a view of both nature and neighbours. Interspersed among the trees are the rooftops and chimneys of the houses around us. 

‘Twas town, yet country too; you felt the warmth

Of clustering houses in the wintry time;

Supped with a friend, and went by lantern home.

Yet from your chamber window you could hear

The tiny bleat of new-yeaned lambs, or see

The children bend behind the hedgerow banks

To pluck the primroses.

-From Felix Holt, by George Eliot

Once, during our long-ago search for an island cottage, John and I pulled into the driveway of an isolated bungalow surrounded by trees. It was raining, and through the windshield drizzle I could see an older man peering bleakly through a window at us. I don’t know what he was really thinking, but to me, his face expressed everything I feared about country living – isolation, boredom and loneliness, leading to one desperate plea: “How can I escape from this?”

We did not buy the bungalow.

Instead, we bought in a village. Even though we were looking for “country” – as opposed to our city life – when it came right down to it, we chose “clustering houses” over nature-drenched isolation. 

Eliot’s little passage, written in the 1860s and looking back to an earlier, more pastoral England, made me think about the eternal push and pull between city and country – nature and society – a common theme not just in literature, but in many of our lives.

 Eliot herself was notoriously torn. She grew ill and stressed in the city, and always improved when she got out of London. But her work connections and family were in the city, so that’s where she spent most of her time. No wonder she imagined an idyllic world combining the best of both.

As an Alberta farm kid, I know all about the country – its loneliness, its limitations, but also the pluses of wild roses on an unpaved road, and a dome of glittering stars reflected in midnight snows. But I’ve spent my adulthood in the city, where work, friends and convenience have outweighed the negatives of crowding, expense, and the sad destructiveness of never-ending growth.

For me as for most of us, it’s a balancing act. We live in the city for work, family and convenience, and scrounge what “country” we can –whether it’s a local park or a get-away cottage.

Nothing could be as idyllic as Eliot’s fancied village, but John and I found a close-enough version. Our cottage on Saltspring Island rings with birdsong, but it also looks out over the rooftops and smoking chimneys of our neighbours. Unlikely as it sounds, we have actually experienced Eliot’s scenario of “supping” with friends in our tiny village and walking home, albeit by flashlight rather than lantern.

The island has its downsides, with limited water, services, shopping and grueling ferry connections. But when it comes time to sell our little piece of country – hopefully not for a few years yet – there will be no repeat of that long-ago bungalow scene. No potential buyers will be scanning my face and wondering just how desperate I am to escape.

 

Every summer afternoon, neighbours gather at Vesuvius Beach just down the hill from our house. We can't feel too isolated when there's a regular group to gossip and swim with.

Leave the crowd on the beach and walk to the nearby ferry terminal, where you are immediately immersed in the beauty of nature. 

This isn't in the village, but a short drive away, you can imagine you're in the English countryside with a flock of sheep on a hill.

From almost every point of our yard, we have beautiful views of nature. Here, a rainbow adds colour to a view of Mount Erskine.

When winter comes, nature is just as beautiful. Here's a look down the hill at the property next to ours. 

And that little Vesuvius store looks cozily inviting in a winter snowfall. Eliot understood how tiny bits of town life enliven and enhance the country.