# Where are you from?



## LilyJo (Jan 24, 2017)

Having spent a great deal of time lately following American politics (dont worry I know better than to start something so divisive!) it occured to me that SMF has lots of people from all over the world but a great many from the States.

Like many people I have a cursory working knowledge of US geography  - I kind of know which States are East and West coast but not a whole lot in between nor an insight into how different the weather can be across the US other than sweeping generalisations West coast is hot and sunny East is more unpredictable, like the UK but more extreme.....I think!

I know some of us/you have a little info on your profiles but lots of people dont - I wonder if any of you would care to share a bit just so I can get a handle on where you are and what life is like there.

Dont mind starting - I'm based in Hampshire which is in the South of the UK. The weather here is pretty mild most of the year (although its really cold by our standards at the moment!) compared to other areas, its a relatively wealthy area although like most places it has pockets of deprivation but in general I would say its better off than many areas in the Midlands or the North.  London is about an hour from me by train and the sea is about the same. 

I guess Im Just curious as I hear some of you talk about the humidity or taking long drives and its hard to picture or put a pin in a virtual map to understand the differences.


----------



## Susie (Jan 24, 2017)

I am from Louisiana in the states, which is the state that, unfortunately, houses New Orleans.  It is hot, humid, and is prone to occasional hurricanes.  However, the Cajun people (my people) are warm, friendly, never met a stranger, invite you to their house for supper on first meeting sorts of folks.  So they more than make up for the weather.

I now live next door in Texas.  It is also hot and humid, as I live in the eastern portion, close to Louisiana.


----------



## toxikon (Jan 24, 2017)

Hi! I live in a little Northern Ontario city smackdab in the middle of the Great Lakes. I'm Canadian, but right now at work, I am literally 5 minutes from the American border (where our sister city is). So I do plenty of border crossing for shopping. Some groceries are much cheaper bought in the States!

Our winters are cold and long. Snow starts around Halloween and isn't completely gone until late April usually. Our winter temperatures vary anywhere from 0C (like right now) to -25C. Summers are nice with temperatures up to 25C. Surrounded by beautiful wildlife and the Lake Superior coast is beautiful for camping and swimming in the summer.

Love living here! The closest Canadian city to us is a 3 hour drive!


----------



## dixiedragon (Jan 24, 2017)

I'm in Alabama, which is in the Southeastern US. I tell non-US folk I am 10 hrs drive west of Disney World and 3 days drive south of New York, just to give them some points of reference. 

Weather wise - right now we're having a very warm winter, it's in the 60s (15C) today. We've had a few days in the 80s (27C) which is unusual for us. Christmas Day was also in the 80s. We very rarely get snow - an average of 1 inch a year, which usually means no snow 2 years of 3 and then a "big" snow in one year - aka 3 inches. The states along the Gulf Coast - Texas, Louisiana, Missippi, Georgia, Florida - become paralyzed by snow and ice. We laugh at ourselves about it, but we don't have snow equipment b/c we rarely need it.

In 2014 we had what we still call Snowmageddon:
http://yellowhammernews.com/faithandculture/alabamas-snowmageddon-2014-eyes-living/

This was probably an average winter day in a lot of places, but lots of us got stuck. I myself had to hike to a hotel where my company had managed to book two rooms. A lot of people spent the night at where I work - both employees and people who were stuck near by. My office is in an area with a lot of business and we work right beside an intersection in that office park where a lot of cars were stuck. Even if you had snow chains you couldn't get through because so many cars had been abandoned there. So we kept walking down the hill to invite stuck people to our office for some hot coffee so they didn't have to sit in their frozen cars.

My parents have a lake house and we have swimming weather from about April until October. The water is still pretty chilly in April but it's warm enough that we still swim.


----------



## nutterly_uts (Jan 24, 2017)

I live in Jersey. 
Not New Jersey but the tiny little island the huge state is named after. 
I am in the Channel Islands (again, the original ones off France, not the islands off the US), famous for Jersey Royal potatoes and the gorgeous Jersey cows 
It is 35 square miles and in the middle of the sea. Weather is usually sunny and a bit warmer than both France and England. We don't really ever get snow (bit like the Alabama posted above!) although at the moment it is getting to 0c/-3c at night which is COOOOOLD!! Almost everything is bought in and can be expensive - we even pay more locally for our potatoes and milk than people on the mainland!!

If I can get good at this soaping lark, I would like to use the creamy milk in my soaps


----------



## fuzz-juzz (Jan 24, 2017)

Interesting thread, it will be nice to know a bit more about  everyone.

'm from Melbourne Australia.
Originally from Croatia, lived in Sydney for a few years and moved to Melbourne in 2003. Capital of tennis ATM. I don't like tennis so I don't watch it that much haha.
I'm in Eastern suburbs, just under Mount Dandenog.

Weather is very dry and hot during summer, sometimes humid is added to the mix making everything more yuk.
Winters are cool and vet, with occasional frost, but that's rare. No snow. Apparently this side of Melbourne gets more rain than west. My friends in west called this side: the cloudy and rainy side of the Melb. 
We had occasional super storms where tonnes of rain falls within minutes, hail of a size of a tennis ball but that's rare and happens duribg spring mostly.


----------



## Viore (Jan 24, 2017)

I live on the West coast in Southern California, in the desert region. We just had a series of winter storms that dropped about 2.5 inches of rain in three days. It probably doesn't seem like much to most of you, but it caused major flooding in my neighboring cities. I live about 2 hours drive from Disneyland, if that helps as a reference.


----------



## Luviesmom (Jan 24, 2017)

I live near Pinehurst, NC
 The golf capital of the USA. Also near one the largest Army bases, Fort Bragg. Very mild climate but can be brutally hot and humid in the summer. We have had a very mild winter. Which isn't helping freeze 'skeeter's.


----------



## mommycarlson (Jan 24, 2017)

Such exotic places!  I live in Iowa, on the Mississippi River, east Central right on the hump.  We have crazy weather here, usually heaps of snow in the winter and lots of cold, then hot and stifling humidity in the summer.  Iowa is home of tall corn, and RAGBRAI, the worlds oldest and largest touring bike ride.


----------



## earlene (Jan 24, 2017)

I am a native Californian (USA), where I lived the first 55 years of my life.  From Southern California where I was born & lived on my grandfather's cactus nursery, to northern California where we lived in the Redwood Forests while my dad began his career as a journalist, to the San Francisco Bay Area, where I lived into my 30's, to the Santa Cruz coastal towns where I again lived in the Redwood Forests as well as in a small coastal town near the ocean, I experienced all varieties of weather that California has to offer.  I swam in the Pacific Ocean as well as lakes around the state, skiied the Sierra Nevadas in the winter, hiked the Kings Canyon area with my second husband, and various and sundry outdoorsy activities throughout my childhood.  We were a mobile type of family, what with all the road trips we took and we camped a lot because it was the only really affordable vacation method in a family with so many kids and so little money when we were all small.  Later as we grew up and my parents income increased, they began to travel in earnest and so did I.  I went to nursing school in California and raised my sons there.  The weather in California can vary from north to south and east to west, from coast to mountains and from summer to winter.  But even in the fairly mild areas where one would never expect it, we had snow twice in my lifetime while living at sea level in the San Francisco Bay Area.  Summer in the central valley could get excruciatingly hot, but in my youth there was no air conditioning available in most people's homes, unless they were rich, which most of my family was not.  Now I have AC in the summer, and boy does it make all the difference!  And you don't have to be rich to have AC anymore. At least not in this part of the world. :think: 

After my mother died and my husband and I visited his parents in the small farming town where he grew up, I told him I'd like to move here.  He didn't think I'd last and thought within a year we'd be back in California, but we've been here for about 12 years now and the only reason we don't plan to stay here after his mother passes, is because he doesn't want to shovel snow when he's 80.

Our town has no public transportation, although we are supposed to get a train station sometime soon.  There apparently once was one, and the plans are in the works to build one again.  Then we won't have to drive 35 miles to park our car and take a train to Chicago; that'll be nice.  We are only 19 miles from the Iowa border and the Mississippi River, which freezes up along the edges when the winters are colder.  But this winter's been pretty mild this year.  In 2009, though we drove to the Moline airport and my husband keeps reminding me that it was -29F the day we flew out to Obama's Inauguration.  That was a cold winter here and the Mississippi had plenty of ice in it then.  

I travel the US by car quite often because I really enjoy roadtrips and want to see as much of my country as possible.  I've been to all 50 states and many many national parks, national monuments, wildlife preserves as well as museums and as many other sites of interest as I can manage.  Since my youngest granddaughter was 9 months old and came to live with us for a short time (with her parents), we have included her in our roadtrips whenever possible.  She has always been a marvelous traveler and has traveled with me to and from the east coast, the west coast, the Gulf Coast and the Great Lakes, once all in one road trip.  Sometimes my husband is along for the ride and sometimes it's just the two of us.  Then of course sometimes it's just me alone because I enjoy it so much and no one else is able to get away.

Illinois is hot and humid in the summer and it tends to rain more in the summer than in the winter, but not this year.  This year has seen more rain than snow, and no ice storms at all, which were much more common the first few years I lived here.  But IMO the summers have also been milder lately, too.  I assume the changes are related to climate change, but what do I know?

I visited England and France in the mid 1990's with a friend and we drove a rental car across England from London to Scotland so we could visit Edinburgh.  We made some stops along the way to see a dew sights including some parts of Hadrian's Wall.  That was so much fun and I want to go back so very much because there is so much to see and I barely scratched a corner of the surface.  My husband & I also drove through many (half?) of the states in Mexico when my son & DIL lived in Chiapas.  We flew into Mexico City, rented a car and drove through as many states as we could in a round about sort of route so we could see some pyramids and various other things before getting to Chiapas where they were living, then drove back.  I know there don't seem to be any members here who live in Mexico, but if there are, I'd love to know if I've visited your town or at least your state.

There are many other parts of the world I would love to visit, and anything any of you has to say about your country, I'd love to read about because it just feeds into my desire to travel and gives me more ideas of what to include in my plans for the future.


----------



## Steve85569 (Jan 24, 2017)

I live at the foot of the Rocky Mountains right on the Washington / Oregon border.
My great- great grandfather homesteaded here. Right here. I have lived within 10 miles of the house I am in since I was 1. It's been a long and wonderful journey.
The Walla Walla River is in my back yard ( literally) and we maintain a 10 acre riparian zone for wildlife and our enjoyment.
Form Strawberries through to apples we have fresh fruit from the yard all during the warm months.
We are having quite a bit of winter this year for us though. I will be glad when "the thaw" comes this spring.


----------



## BubblyPanda (Jan 24, 2017)

It's amazing to read all of these!

I'm from and (for now) live in Argentina. In the most known province: Buenos Aires. It's located in the middle-west part of the country.

The wheather here is as humid as it gets hahaha. Here it's super hot and humid during summer (nothing compared to the north of the country, but hey! we hit 40°C usually); spring is much more nice here: it's always nice and warm and very very flowery. Linden trees are common here and when we get closer to summer the flowers bloom and fill the air with their perfume. It's awesome!

But, as much as I like having fun under the sun I have to tell you: I love winter! The cold wheather is my passion! Autumn here is the best too: it's the right amount of cold and the scenery gets all colourful with the different shades of orange, red and yellow. Sadly, it rarely (almost never) snows here. If I recall correctly, last time was on 2009. And that phenomenon only happens every 70 years! Lucky me! haha :mrgreen: But usually it doesn't get cold enough for it to snow. I'd love to move somewhere where the snow gets to cover me whole! (Although it might be weird to not have winter during July, that I tell you!)
Right now we're getting closer to fall, so it starts to rain more. The summer gets much more stormy, with thunderstorms and all that I also love!

Even though I want to move, it really is a nice place to live. Even more if you like gardening! No matter what kind of seed you throw to the ground, it will always grow haha


----------



## snappyllama (Jan 24, 2017)

I recently moved just north of Charlotte, North Carolina in the states. It's considered "The South" but has weather that's thankfully not nearly as sultry as a Tennessee Williams play. We are a few hours away from the Atlantic on one side and the Smokey Mountains on the other. I live in a smallish college town near a big lake - really a lovely place with big trees and safe enough that teenagers walk to the main street soda shop.

I've most recently moved from the Rocky Mountains in Colorado where it snowed from October to May so I miss how gorgeous 4ft of fresh powder looks, but I'm overjoyed at not having to shovel four feet of fresh anything this winter. We lived on a couple of acres and the only neighbors I saw were deer, elk, bear and the thankfully occasional mountain lion. 

I've also lived in Portland Oregon and loved the artistic vibe (the 90s never died there!) but the cost of living was very high.... plus the rain really got depressing after a while.


----------



## BattleGnome (Jan 24, 2017)

I grew up outside of Chicago, went to school in lower Michigan (Holland, MI, home of the Tulip Festival which is apparently a bigger deal there than in the Netherlands). I chased my husband to Michigan's Upper Penninsula (we went to high school together) and forced him to pick a place to put down roots. He chose to stay in the UP. 

We are 20 miles (give or take) from Lake Superior and I bitterly regret saying yes to these winters. I've been up here for nearly 6 years and this is the warmest one. Usually by now we're at 0F-25F but this week has been in the upper 30's with 3" of snow expected tomorrow and into Thursday. 

As a map reference to where I am, we're a 3ish hour drive from Canada but I can't seem to persuade my husband to get his passport for a weekend out of the country.


----------



## dibbles (Jan 24, 2017)

I live in Minnesota, which from east to west in the US is more or less in the middle. But the state sits at the north of the country - it borders Canada. I live in what is considered the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro area, but am about 30 miles north of Minneapolis. Our house is on 10 acres of woods and marsh land. We are fortunate to see a great variety of wildlife and birds, and it is quiet and peaceful here. The winters can be bitterly cold with a lot of snow, and quite honestly also last too long. I do love the changing seasons though, and when spring does overtake the last of winter it is truly glorious!


----------



## LilyJo (Jan 25, 2017)

Wow, this is amazing and thank you all for sharing so much fabulous info.

Get a great sense of where people live as well as where you are from and what life is really like, for us in the UK those distances just seem incredble - if I have to go to Edinburgh or Glasgow I would think twice about driving as it takes about 8 hours but it seems as though thats nothing compared to the distances some of you have!

Love hearing so much about you all, think I am going to start a map with a pin in for each of you so I can see where everyone is. BTW you are all amazing at giving a sense of geography and weather, its defineietly making me want to visit some of the less tourist intenseive areas.


----------



## Scooter (Jan 25, 2017)

snappyllama said:


> I live in a smallish college town near a big lake - really a lovely place with big trees and safe enough that teenagers walk to the main street soda shop."



I'm pretty sure I know where you're talking about--I will not say since you chose not to. That is beautiful country. I grew up north of Charlotte in a county where my family has been since at least 1754 but have lived in Durham now for several decades and really love it here.


----------



## ibct1969 (Jan 25, 2017)

I think your thread is really fun.  I'm enjoying reading through everyone's posts.  

I'm in a suburban town located about 20 miles south of Denver in Colorado.  My husband and I moved here from Southern California, where we grew up, in 1991.  Our area is part of what is referred to as the Front Range- its east of the Rockies, almost in the center of the state.  Mountains to the west, and VERY flat land to the east.  It's hot and dry here in the summer- we have many days with temperatures of 90+ degrees F.  We have pretty intense thunder and lightening storms here during that time of the year- it's actually pretty awesome to watch- from INDOORS!   Winters are cold but we generally don't get too much snow, compared to our mountain towns, where the elevations are much higher.  There's a bit of snow on the ground in my backyard where the sun doesn't shine much, but my front yard has none... Today is 30 degrees F and the sun is shining...  Spring is beautiful but snow can fall up until May; just ask the tree in our front yard that lost all of its leaves during a blizzard that happened on Mother's Day recently.  Fall is also gorgeous but doesn't really start down here in the Front Range until October.  We have amazing Aspen trees throughout the state and they turn amazing shades of yellow, red and orange.  I'm attaching a lovely photo of those (not mine).  

Also attached is a photo of Mount Elbert (not mine), which is the highest peak here in Colorado.  She's a 'biggun' at 14,439 feet.   

Thanks again for starting such a fun thread.


----------



## mx5inpenn (Jan 25, 2017)

I grew up in far northwest Pennsylvania, moved south (probably fairly close to where Susie is) for many years, then moved back to my hometown almost 10 years ago. Pennsylvania is in the northeast, it borders Canada via Lake Erie. The winters are cold and snowy (I am really missing Texas right now!) Our summers average 70-80F and are either beautiful or rainy. We average more rainfall than Portland, but get it in big spurts rather than a lighter rain every day.

I am in the Allegheny foothills, the Allegheny River and Allegheny National Forest are almost in my backyard. The area is beautiful. If you like hiking, there are hundreds of trails. National canoeing and kayaking events are held here every year.

I've traveled in most of the continental 48 states and would like to see many again as well as visit all those I haven't. Hubby wants to move to Alaska someday, I'm thinking more like Arizona!


----------



## mx5inpenn (Jan 25, 2017)

The first pic is my town, the river cuts right thru and there are only 2 bridges, one at each end of town, to cross.

The second pic is the best way to see the river. 

The last 2 are popular hiking areas in the forest.

The pictures aren't mine, but I'm on my phone so don't have access to the ones I've taken right now.


----------



## SheLion (Jan 25, 2017)

I live a few miles north of Annapolis, Maryland. Maryland is in the mid-Atlantic region, which means it's on the Atlantic (east) coast of the US, and in the middle, north to south. Annapolis is the state capital and sits on the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay. (The portion of Maryland on the other side of the bay is actually referred to as the eastern shore by Marylanders.) Annapolis is the self-proclaimed 'Sailing capital of the world' and also the home of the United States Naval Academy. The Maryland capitol building in Annapolis is the oldest capitol still in continuous legislative use and is the only one to have ever served as the nation's capital. So, a lot of history where I live.

In terms of weather, we usually have 4 seasons: hot, humid summers; cool, crisp autumns; cold winters (some snow, usually not more than a few inches at a time); and cool, rainy springs. The nice thing about where I live is that in 20 minutes I can be on the shore of the bay. If I drive about 3 hours east, I can be on the shore of the Atlantic ocean. And if I drive about 1.5 hours west, I can be in the Catoctin mountains. Another hourish west of that and I'm in the Allegany mountains. Both of those ranges are part of the Appalachian mountains. The Appalachians are the oldest mountains in the US, and according to a website I just looked at, the oldest in the world as well. I'm also a 20 minute drive and a 30ish minute Metro train ride from the National Mall in Washington, DC. (I could, of course, drive into DC but I don't unless I have no other recourse. The traffic is horrible and I get terribly lost. )

Maryland is the fifth state in which I've lived. I was born in Michigan (in Flint, actually, which is more well-known now due to the shameful water crisis). Spent my childhood in Florida and then went back to Michigan. After high school I ended up in California and then North Carolina, courtesy of the US military, and finally landed in Maryland. After the husband retires, we're planning on relocating but have yet to decide where to go.


----------



## Guspuppy (Jan 25, 2017)

Man I am so resonating with so many of these posts! I grew up and currently live in NW Pennsylvania, probably an hour south of mx6inpenn. I've been to Allegheny National Forest many many times to hike and camp, and I'm going to bet the first picture of the rocks is on the Minister Creek hiking trail.   She did a great job of describing our area and weather so I don't need to repeat. 

In 2003 I flew into London, spent a day, and took the night bus to Edinburgh and rented a bicycle. I then proceeded to spend 10 days biking 300 miles around Scotland, ending up in Glasgow before returning by bus to London to fly home again.

I lived in Brainerd Minnesota in the winter of 2004-05, and it happened to be the coldest winter in 10 years or something, with temps getting at one point to -50°F. My bed froze to the wall in my apartment!

I climbed Mt Elbert in 2014 as part of a tribute by my best friend's family on her dad's birthday a year after his death. Everything after about 13,000 feet was HARD. My fingernails were blue from lack of oxygen by the time I summited! 

I've been to all 50 states and a few countries besides, so I won't bombard you with details, but these are just some of the things that came to mind as I read through people's posts on this thread. So great! Thank you LilyJo for starting it!


----------



## KristaY (Jan 26, 2017)

What a fun and informative read this has been, LilyJo! 

I live in the northwest corner of Arizona, which is in the American southwest. I live 60 miles from California and 30 miles from Nevada, so this is called the "tri-state area". People often hear "Arizona" and immediately think "HOT". Well it's not, unless you live along the Colorado River or Phoenix area. I live in the high desert (4000 ft and above) so our temps are mild in summer and cold in winter. Right now there's 18" of snow in the mountains 12 miles up the road from my house and the high there was 28 F.

2 hours to the east is Flagstaff, AZ which is the coldest city in our state. It sits at 7,000 ft elevation and currently has 4 ft of snow throughout the city! I think the high there today was 12 F. In our last storm (2 days ago) the ski resort above Flagstaff got 72" of snow on top of the 100" they got in the last month. Skiers and snowboarders are having a grand time!

30 minutes to the west of me, at 500 ft elevation is the Colorado River and the boarder between AZ & NV. The high there today was 63 F. It's not uncommon to see 135 F in the summer but the media won't ever advertise that, lol. It's bad for tourism. The only thing that makes it bearable is the VERY low humidity which is normally about 10-15%.

Arizona has the most diverse topogrophy in the US - elevations range from 500 ft to almost 13,000 ft so within a couple of hours you can drive from many feet of snow to tee shirt weather. We have drought tolerant cactus and cold-loving lodgepole pines. We also have a large diversity of native critters. Heat-loving rattlesnakes (13 different species) as well as elk, deer, bear, mountain lion, bobcat, javelina, antelope, big horn sheep, turkey and many, many more. Most of these live around my area and are common to see.

The most interesting thing to me, living in the American west, is how relatively young our part of the world is. Our oldest buildings are only about 150 years old. We don't have the centuries of history that our friends across the seas know and live in. Even the eastern part of the US has much more history than we do. AZ only became a state in 1912 which is a baby compared to most parts of the world!


----------



## Scooter (Jan 26, 2017)

KristaY said:


> The most interesting thing to me, living in the American west, is how relatively young our part of the world is. Our oldest buildings are only about 150 years old.



When I was younger I had a good friend from Ireland who had moved to the United States. I mentioned to him once that my family had lived in the South for about 250 years...he rolled his eyes and said, "That's nothing. My family has lived in the same _house_ for 400 years!"

Yeah, "American" culture is a blip in the grand scheme of things.


----------



## leilaninoel (Jan 26, 2017)

I'm born and raised New Hampshire. I live in the southern part of the state, which is comprised primarily of suburbs and woods. The further north you go in NH, the deeper into the mountains you go. It's beautiful here - people often come in the fall for the foliage. Winter this year is fairly mild - not too much snow or freezing cold yet. Last year was bitter cold, though - down to -20F, or -29C with the wind chill, or possibly even lower. Summers are hot and humid - not unusual to hit 100F or 38C during the hottest months. 



Susie said:


> However, the Cajun people (my people) are warm, friendly, never met a stranger, invite you to their house for supper on first meeting sorts of folks.  So they more than make up for the weather.



My mother is actually from Newfoundland, which is a very similar culture - it's just one big family there. The hospitality in Newfoundland actually garnered some attention after 9/11, enough so where they wrote a musical about Gander and the hospitality they showed to all the passengers of planes diverted to Gander.  
Weather is very nasty on "The Rock" where my Mom is from - summer was all of a few weeks long. In the winter they used to get their mail by dogsled, and in the groceries came by ship year round.


----------



## CTAnton (Jan 26, 2017)

I'm really enjoying this thread...here's my 3 cents(adjusted for inflation).
I'm born in Brooklyn, which is a suburb of New York City. Supposedly a large percentage of the American population can trace it's ancestry back to Brooklyn. Raised on Long Island which, geographically, is interesting in the fact that the last glacial period stopped there and dumped it's boulders on the north side while the smaller particles washed out to the south. One of the major highways in the area follows the top of the "rock pile" left by the glacier and you can see the land slope out to the south.
I moved a whopping 2 hours away and have spent half my life in Connecticut. The usual 4 seasons for this part of the world with some nice topography where I live...streams coming down the hills, beaver ponds and a lot of woods. Bears and coyotes bobcats and I'll go out on a limb and say I saw a ropey tail going into some shrubs once which would be a mountain lion. This state was once a major industrial center, centered here largely because of free water power. They were and still are called mill towns .One town near me is still nicknamed "Hat City"  being a center of hat manufacturing in it's day. 
Nice to know I'm not the only one with roots in Newfoundland. My mom was from there and met my dad there during WWII . He was from Brooklyn. After the war they wrote letters for 4 years to each other, at which time my mom came for a visit and never left. Dating before the internet....


----------



## Marshall (Jan 26, 2017)

Born and raised in St Petersburg Florida, followed my girlfriend up to New Jersey where we lived for about 5 years. Took that long to convince her to marry me   We then moved to Tennessee, settling in a town just outside of Nashville. 

Neither of us had been to Tennessee before but it sounded nice. We searched MLS books I talked a Realtor out of to get ideas, came to Tennessee for a one week trip to look around, went back to Jersey packed up and moved here over 25 years ago.


----------



## nutterly_uts (Jan 26, 2017)

LilyJo said:


> Get a great sense of where people live as well as where you are from and what life is really like, for us in the UK those distances just seem incredble - if I have to go to Edinburgh or Glasgow I would think twice about driving as it takes about 8 hours but it seems as though thats nothing compared to the distances some of you have!.



I have the flip attitude.. when your island is only 9 miles long and 5 miles wide, getting off the rock is a big deal, so what does it matter if you drive an hour or 9 once you're off it!


----------



## Millie (Jan 26, 2017)

I live in the western part of the Finger Lakes of New York. The Canadian border is about two hours away and New York City is five hours away. We have four seasons, very similar to the weather described by others from the northeast. Today it is snowing.

I live in a beautiful old farmhouse surrounded by wooded hills and farmland. This is not the touristy part of the Finger Lakes! On our Main Street we have a burger joint, a tattoo parlor, a gas station and a firehouse. All other businesses fled many years ago. Our main source of entertainment comes from the volunteer fire department - they host craft fairs, balls, a town wide yard sale and other events. A church nearby hosts historical reenactments and demolition derbies in the summer.

I have lived in New York for most of my life, but in this part for only two years, and I'm still getting used to the culture. Everyone owns a gun or twenty for hunting deer and bears and fowl. Most people have lived here for many generations, and I've been told I'll be the new person in town until I have great grandkids here! Locals don't just ask where I live, they want to know exactly which house I live in, and they can report on the history of my house over the last hundred years or so. At first this was alarming to me, now I enjoy the stories.

There are many Amish folk in the area, and I am still thrilled everytime I see a family drive by in a horse drawn carriage. On Sundays a group of forty or so bikers on Harley Davidsons swoop through town. On the 4th of July neighbors all around set off real professional grade fireworks! Being surrounded on all sides by thundering blasts echoing through the hills, it is easy to feel some of the adrenaline and imagine the fear of America's early wars.

P.S. I have also seen the rock from mx6inpenn's photo!


----------



## MySoapyHeart (Jan 26, 2017)

I am from Norway, born and (g)raised.
I live an hour or so from our main capital City of Oslo.

Norway is a country of ever changing seasons, so we always have something new to look forward to. Like, 4 times a year! Spring, Summer, Fall/Autumn and Winter.

I live in a place that have access to nature within a coupple of minutes, no matter where I turn. Deeps woods, lakes and waters, trails and whatnot. I don`t have the health to go out and enjoy it at the moment, but if I could it would take me no more than 5 minutes until I was deep in the woods, heading towards a trail that can take me as far as I can go. Love that!

My favourite is Fall. It has that... _New-Fall smell_. Do you know it? It is when the air gets visually more crisp and clear, like the clouds releases a boost of moist oxygen that travels down to the ground and filters away and binds dust and partickles that normally cloud up the air. It is quite strange. Along with it you get the woodsy notes of every tree that surrounds you, along with the grassy smell of wiltering leaves, wet grass and damp soil. 

The wind is making the trees sing their special Fall-song they only perform once a year, because half of the leaves have branched out so to speak, and left their former habitat and decided to paint the ground we walk on with the brightest of colors for each and every step we take. Yellow brick road, indeed...

Sometimes we can pick up the most pristine leaf, and admire the colors, then let the wind take it on a ride to next location for someone else to find.
I love the wind in fall, it gives off the most soothing sound ever. A calming wooshing sound that increases and decreases as the wind moves through every remaining leaf and bare branch...

Right now though, we have winter. 

Frozen lakes with bright blue and crackling ice that is absolutely safe to use, but still gives you that tickle in your tummy. _What if_...

Where we live people are ice skating or playing Hockey, doing cross country skiing - on or off the ice - every day these days. The skiing on the lake itself depends on the ammount of snow that are on the ground. 
If the lake has a big enough layer of snow on it, the Municipality uses a snow mobile and make a special trail or loop if you will, for cross-country skis. It takes people around an hour to finish the complete loop. Some does that two times to get more time outside.

Norwegians are very interested in the outdoors, and the only time of year going _DOWNHILL _is a good thing, is in the winter. 

At least if you have the correct skis to go with the _terrain_...


----------



## earlene (Jan 26, 2017)

Millie said:


> Locals don't just ask where I live, they want to know exactly which house I live in, and they can report on the history of my house over the last hundred years or so. At first this was alarming to me, now I enjoy the stories.



When the folks in town ask where I live (not anymore, but they used to), I had to tell them the old 'so & so place'.  Our house was built and lived in by the man who founded the high school and was the first Superintendent of Schools in our town.

However, only the older people knew that.  The teen-agers who go to the school he founded have no idea where he lived a hundred years ago.  :think:


----------



## Deola (Jan 27, 2017)

I'm not so sure if there is any other person from Nigeria here.  I'm from Ondo state, a south western state in Nigeria. I live in the state capital but my hometown is right next to the capital. Here is the view of my hometown from the popular idanre hill


----------



## Kosam (Feb 3, 2017)

Greetings from Chicago! Today is  cold -8   but sunny


----------



## Pepsi Girl (Feb 5, 2017)

Where do I live well it's not the end of the world but you can see it from my house!  
I'm in the USA in the far NE corner of Oregon. Oregon is in the NW part of the US.  We live on a ranch at the top of a mountain with the closest neighbors a mile away.  We live 7 miles straight up hill from the closest town and it is population of 1200.  It has a food market a post office and a drug store what more do you need.  It's terrible cold in the winter and sunny and warm in the summer!


----------



## Scooter (Feb 5, 2017)

Pepsi Girl said:


> Where do I live well it's not the end of the world but you can see it from my house!
> I'm in the USA in the far NE corner of Oregon. Oregon is in the NW part of the US.  We live on a ranch at the top of a mountain with the closest neighbors a mile away.



Oh I am so jealous. When I was much younger I lived on a ranch in the high desert located in the Inyo/White mtns... that little strip of California right on the NV border. Such gorgeous country... from CA, up through OR and then eastern WA. The mountains change names but the beauty is all the way up.


----------

