"There's gold in them thar hills". (Mark Twain)

Okay not gold, but strawberries and art is our gold.
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Ploughing a land with horses. This painting was done long ago before the advent of tractors and modern farming equipment.

In a time long ago the farmers were hardy folks that did most things by hand. Master craftsmen that had no Ferraris or Lamborghinis for long distance traveling, but only hand built ox-wagons.
I am taking you back to this lovely 1692 period today.

But where did I find the painting?

Here's a clue of where we made the art discovery. Looks like a lovely pumpkin doesn't it?
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In fact I said to the lady at the "Kiosk" (Farm shop), "thank you for the lovely pumpkins" and she burst out with laughter.
I think that you might also know that they are big strawberries.
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As the landscape looked in 1629, it still looks the same in our modern day.
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So here times haven't changed as the strawberries are still picked by hand. Each of the pickers are expertly skilled in their tasks of identifying the exact time for a strawberry to be picked. Too green will be no good and too ripe will result in pulp.
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Now for the treasure find!

This is a photo of the entrance to the Kiosk and they have all kinds of bottled cherry jams and other farm produce inside. They also serve coffee and sandwiches and one can relax at tables in their garden.

There is a door at the left of the kiosk that was always locked when we went there and lo and behold, today they were cleaning and the door was open. I peeped inside and was pleasantly surprised at what I saw.
So I asked permission to go in with my camera.
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But I am getting ahead of myself and let me first show you the garden where we sat to enjoy a flask of old style grinded bean coffee.
That metal table at the far left of the picture is where we sat to enjoy the coffee and I also had a perfect view of the blue sky.
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The sun interfered a bit, but I get shots like this of the sky with my coffee in the one hand and the camera in the other hand. A lovely Jackal Buzzard (Buteo rufofuscus)
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Right, now let's enter behind that door to see what I found.

Ah it is a neat little restaurant that smelled of the past and I felt that I was in a cloud of witnesses.
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Filled with simple but very effective treasures that transfers one to the past.
I will let each of these pictures speak for themselves.
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Just a view of a beautiful cactus on the way out of the farm.
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Finally we were on our way back home.
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Not often that I place a long post like this, but it was very special to me as I also lived on a farm in my early years.
The simplicity of the early days just shows us how we have complicated our lives in our strive after comfort. "Quick quick" is the motto of our current days. And quality of life was put on the back shelf. Money and riches reign, and in our chase after it we have cast aside many important items such as love, respect, happiness and peace.
Maybe we should all consider our ways, and place simplicity at the forefront.

That's All Friends!

Photos by Zac Smith-All Rights Reserved.

Camera: Canon Powershot SX60HS Bridge camera.

Thank you kindly for supporting a post on behalf of @papilloncharity

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