"Looks like a fairytale..."
said my younger sister,
in response to me sharing a picture of the three majestic, old cork oaks that guard the forest track leading up to our land.
It really does, I thought.
And thus I replied in the family chat:
"We are living in/ near fairytale forest.
La Brugue and Eibergen vibes in Italy."
For some context, Eibergen is a village in The Netherlands, not far from the German border. It is surrounded by nature and forest.
My father's parents had a (farm)house there with a sizeable plot of land. It came with a big, fenced field of grass, where other people's cows grazed. As well as plenty of fruit and nut trees.
My grandma sold it, soon after my granddad passed away, when I was 13 years old.
Us kids loved to spend time there, as the garden was our playground.
We felt wild and free.
It formed a huge contrast with the city (Gouda) that we were born and raised in.
And now on to La Brugue...
the other place that comes to mind when I think of 
It is the tiniest of hamlets, located in the countryside of the South of France. It isn't far from the Pyrenees ( French-Spanish mountains ).
My grandparents, from my mom's side, had a summer house there, up till 1990.
It came with a nice plot of land and was surrounded by nature.
I have spent some of the best moments of my life there, as a young kid, and we had many family reunions there (with aunts, uncles and cousins ) that led to all kinds of 'craziness'.
Those were the days!
The place was, unfortunately, sold when I was 8 years old. My granddad was getting too old to drive there, my grandmom didn't fly.
My mom and her sisters were too busy with their own lives ( and young children ) to take over the place from their parents.
Such a shame.
Memories of the handful of Summers spent there are etched in my brain forever.
It probably helps that my grandmom had a series of photo albums filled with hundreds of pictures of the 16 years or so that my grandfather and her owned this place ( starting in the early 70s, a decade before my twin sister and I were born ).
She kept getting back to these photos, up till the end of her life, in 2018. And so did we.
It always made us feel good, though somewhat nostalgic.
It's now 30 to 35 years later and I own my own, seriously sized plot of land, in the countryside.
It is surrounded by forest and fields and is filled with fruit and nut trees.
There is plenty of space - and time - for play.
We just have to keep reminding ourselves to get out of our heads and keep playing
It took me a while - and I had to move countries several times - but I guess I have come full circle :^)
Life is pretty magical and we are powerful creators.
That is, once we set our minds to it.
Sending love from Molise, Italia. 👨🌾
P.S. I reached out to my fam to see if they possibly have photos from the(se) old days and might edit this post, with a picture or two, later.
