The house that dad built, the home that love built

I wont share the pictures, not today,someday.But I will share the pictures in my heart.
The house my dad built for himself and his new bride 50 years ago , still stands  where he built it, weathered a bit,but beautiful and safe. Changed over time to suit the needs of him and his family,and softened  around the edges of my mind like a beautiful old quilt.
 The house where mom baked fresh bread and brought into  our rooms a buttered crust before dawn on those special winter  mornings.
The house where we left for  Santa ,onion sandwiches and scotch (because that's what he likes you know)
The yard and the swing set and the slide and playhouse (that he also built) where we played and laughed and fell and cried .
The home where we lived and loved and learned .
Times change and life moves forward.Mom and Dad are moving to a new place where it will be easier for them, the house will remain for a time , with the grand kids watching over it ,but it is the end of an era  in some ways . Soon the whole old  farm will be different . But the love and the memories ,comfortable and soft, like that treasured old quilt  will remain .
I wrote this poem some time ago when I first learned that the farm would be sold . Much of the family mentioned in the poem are the folks that I knew and grew up with , but the story is incomplete without , at least acknowledging  the  Quiet Giant, our beloved   Uncle Albert , who  left as a young man to farm at Toefield, and who passed away far to young  , and my gracious and beautiful Auntie Peggy who married and traveled farther away raising her family in the USA.

Remembering Home 

Dusty and Jigs, and an old dog named Peps

And grabbing the paper, off Aunties Barbs steps

Awaiting the School bus by the highway in September

Just some of the times I still can remember

The big old Spruce trees that reach for the sky

One lit up for Christmas in all years gone by

The old Dairy barn

And salt in blue blocks

This is the place, where I learned to walk

And to work and to ride, both bikes and on horses

And learned the true facts

Of Nature’s good and bad forces

Delivering milk, all round the farm

Those crates seemed so heavy, upon my young arm

The sweet smell of silage that wrinkled your nose

And the wonderful feeling of grass on your toes

Sweet peas so fragrant all up on the vine

Scented the breeze near grandmas clothesline

Our gardens so huge and us on our knees

Griping and grumbling

Picking green beans and peas

Farm life is good it isn’t all hard

I remember the water fights out in the big yard

100 years plus, here on this land

Where a young William Horricks. First took a stand

A heritage built, on hard work and grit

Where all of us learned, to just never quit

With George, and with Charlie, then Bud, Bill and Ron

They took up the torch, the old place stood strong

And now progress has come,

As we knew that it would

Soon new homes will be built

Where our heritage stood

I wonder will they know

Will they understand?

The magic that lies right here in this land

The light of our dreams let loose to soar

The echo of cows and the big combines roar

The things I shall take, as I say farewell

To this space

Are the memories fond, and no matter the place

That each of us land, and wherever we roam

We learned it here first

Our family is home

As always , stay safe and warm my friends