Morning Walk

Every morning I walk with my dog Dobby.  Our walk typically lasts a half hour.  In Virginia, we would walk around our suburban neighborhood.  As we walked at the same time every morning, I learned who left for work when, the timing of sprinkler systems and what newspaper my neighbors subscribed to.   Walks were in general unremarkable laps of the neighborhood sidewalk.

My first morning in Belgium, Dobby and I set out on our neighborhood walk to discover a very different kind of neighborhood.  There is some feel of suburbia, our house is close to several others and our street is paved.  A neighbor was out mowing his lawn.

And then before long suburbia gave way to a rural landscape.  We walked past cows, mules and heard a rooster crowing.  We turned onto the street behind our house and saw fields of wheat and corn these are bordered by pretty wild flowers here and there.











In thirty minutes we walked by a mix of homes, modern and traditional.  We walked on paved road and dirt roads.   We smelled fresh air and the presence of farm animals.  We enjoyed pretty flowers and waving grass.

 It sure is a change from our predictable sidewalk routine.