Why did the chicken cross the road?

...or the goose, the sheep, the rabbits and the pheasants?

You meet quite a bit of animal life on the roads around here - and I don't mean the other drivers! Though on a single track lane you have to be ready to find anyone and anything just around the next bend, from animal to a full sized combine in harvest time.

However it still makes for low stress driving compared to my time in the city, a recent trip into urban life reminded me of that. There may be greater distances in the country but we can travel 10 miles much easier than our city friends, usully quicker - unless behind the tractor.  But there are downsides too. In that urban trip I saw that in the densely populated area, with competition and plenty of customers, petrol was 5p a litre cheaper. Out here where we use more we also pay more, the same is often true with other provisons.

Village schools are important and those I have been involved with offer great education and support, they are are the heart of communities. Although now one school will serve a cluster of villages, it is still more expensive per pupil than big town primaries. One school is closing this summer, for the others survival is based on the vaguaries of the intake each year. Already many children experience the school bus from age of 4 or 5.  Without the local schools the journeys would be much longer.

Later in life long distances are travelled for hospital services, a particular struggle when regular treatment like dialysis is required. Again the cottage hospitals in smalll towns are a vital part of the community, their range may be limited but they allow people to be closer to home where friends and family can visit more easily.

Rural life is not the romantic idyll, it has as many challenges as urban life - just different. I have been here nearly 2 years, now, a choice made for me when the church posted me here. And yes you may find a chicken - or more - crossing the road, or be slowed down by a tractor ahead but as someone who grew up in the shadow of a motorway, I know which I prefer.