Thank God He's A Country Boy

My kids all have their own likes & dislikes and interests, they're so different it has been wonderful to watch them grow up and develop their own personalities and hobbies. A is into music, and is a typical teenage girl who likes reading, movies and shopping. J likes his football & basketball, he's our sporty one. L has his special interests, particularly dinosaurs & robots and he wants to design computer games when he's all grown up. E is a walking talking gender stereotype, she loves dollies and pink and princesses (though she will get out there and play football and give her big brothers and sister a run for their money).

But H, he is my proper country boy.

Now, I was born & raised in the town where I live now with my own family, it's set in the rolling hills of the Wiltshire countryside and it is beautiful. It's a bit boring at times I will admit, but there is nowhere else I would want to raise my kids. I grew up climbing trees and building dens, picking daffodils from the fields behind our house and carrying great armfuls back to the house for my mum & nan, not to mention flinging cowpats and rolling down hills and just enjoying the best, most natural childhood that anyone could have asked for. My parents still live on and work the land, my dad is a nurseryman and grows bougainvilleas, and there is nothing that H loves more than spending a day at the nursery helping out.

He'll happily trampse around in his wellies with his old jeans and jacket on, lugging wheelbarrows and carrying pots, planting up with Grampy, and recently, helping Uncle R clear the back car park with his tractor. This morning H was up & dressed at the crack of dawn waiting for R to pick him up and take him to the nursery for a day's work, just like he did last weekend. He is in his element, he has even asked me to buy him a farming simulator game for the PC, bless his heart.

I remember my Dad playing John Denver's "Thank God I'm A Country Boy" in the van & me and my sisters singing along when we went off to exhibitions around the country (Dad still exhibits at many, including RHS such as Chelsea & Hampton Court), and H really reminds me so much of my Dad.

Thank God he's a country boy, too!

I have linked this post with Coombe Mill's #CountryKids linky.