My mother always told me that every relationship would either follow the old adage “absence makes the heart grow fonder” or “out of sight out of mind.”

This is definitely the former, not the latter.

Scott and I did long distance for the first 8 months of our relationship. We often went weeks between visits, and therefore our lengthy phone calls gave way to Skyping for hours on end in those formative months. We attribute our familiarity and that feeling we have been dating for much longer to those months when we were forced to communicate, rather than rely on physical proximity to push us forward.

Now that I am back home for the rest of the month and Scott holds our fort down in Virginia, we are back to relying on those first forms of communication. However, the internet connection out here in the sticks isn’t fast enough for Skype, and neither of us have ever been keen on long phone chats. So, in a sense, the blog will serve as a link between our two worlds.

My world? Everything green and fragrant. When I come home, the child in me longs to play on the farm like I did so long ago. Run around my 24 acres, ride my horse through the fields and take my fishing pole down to the pond with my Dad.

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I spend the mornings sipping coffee with my Mom before I head out to the barn to feed and let out my horses and then allow myself to wander the property with Ivan and Miah before tackling another landscaping project.

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I relish in the smell of fresh cut grass, bug spray, and sunscreen. I could spend hours on my lawnmower as I let my mind wander and recollect memories of old. I love letting my face free of makeup and kicking around in old t-shirts and holey jeans as my hands get dirty in the gardens. It’s a life I don’t get to live while in DC, and it’s a life that is near and dear to my heart.

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The only hitch in this perfect world is that another half of my heart exists in DC where Scott and the life we have built together remains.

And after the day is done here on my childhood farm and I have spent hours working outside, I realize that the entire time I was left to my own devices, my thoughts were entirely of him.

My mother is right – this relationship is where the heart always grows fonder.

-Al