Did you ever notice that you never really KNOW someone until you've seen them in their environment? That if you visit them at their home and spend time there your perception changes? The area or areas that we live in mould and shape us.

I Have Lived in Two Very Different Places

I spent the first 35 years of my life in the big city of Toronto and loved every minute of it. It was fun and exciting. Now I live in a more rural setting and I love it too. 

What you see at a persons home can start to tell you who they are and why. So it's time to come with me for a walk in my yard. Actually in my posts I've shown you quite a few pictures of my home and the surrounding area and today I'd like to show you my in-laws place. The home is on the other side of the valley about 10 minutes away. It's an old farm house that they renovated about 30 years ago and it produces a lot of food for the family.

A Typical Winter Day in Ticino

It's winter so there are no leaves on the trees but you can also see more of the place this way.

That's @lellabird60 in the background. Check out her latest post, she can really fly!

In the above picture you can see what is probably the best view of the house. It's the main entrance and as you may be able to tell the door height is very low. I bang my head constantly, perhaps that's why I do goofy things sometimes! The inside of the house is spectacularly renovated and has a lot of exposed beam work. I'll take you inside another time.

Let's start walking around the house so that you can get a better look!

In the above photo you can see the driveway and the car port. Straight ahead is a massive fig tree that produces a lot of very tasty fruit. To the right you see the kiwi vines. Between those and another few that we have at the other end of the property we have more kiwis than our 4 families can even consume.

Here's the car port showing the kiwi vines.  Their land goes up to the top of the mountain that you can start to see in the background. 

Here's an Interesting Fact About Ticino, Switzerland

Although property is quite expensive in Switzerland agricultural land and land zoned as forest is still very reasonable. 

This is the side of the house. There is a little cobblestone road that ends at the adjacent property which is just a field where someone keeps horses. Since it is zoned for agriculture you cannot build there.

Going up the cobblestone road you can see the vineyard on the right and the house in the distance. We stopped working the vineyard a few years ago and now let a local farmer take care of it. The Merlot grapes are sold to the co-operative and on a good year the vineyard produces a nice cash crop.

Here's another view of the vineyard. Of course it looks a lot nicer in the summer. I'll show you that another time!

Another Interesting Fact about Ticino: "The Freedom to Roam"

While my family has a lot of land which is made up of fields, vineyards and forest, in Switzerland the law states that it must remain accessible to the public as long as they don't overuse it. For that reason people walk through paths in the woods that we own. It is referred to as "The Freedom to Roam". We have never had a problem with this and it is certainly nice for the people in the area.

There are many paths like this on the property. Notice the individually placed stones that make up the "path". Lot's of work was done by someone but it's very nice! In the woods we take any dead trees and cut them into fencing posts, and of course, wood for heating. The chestnut tree in particular is very resistant to rot and perfect for construcion that is close to the ground.

In this picture you can see some of the 30 bee keeping boxes that are on the property. They are not ours, my in-laws have allowed a beekeeper to use the land for this purpose and in exchange he provides us with honey. Sweet Deal!

In this picture I've walked part way up the mountain. The building that I circled is the border crossing and after that it's not Switzerland but Italy. I've lived here over 20 years and crossed the different borders hundreds of times and have only been asked for documents once!

How Did You Enjoy The Tour?

This was just a short walk today perhaps another time you'll visit again and I'll show you the vegetable garden and the fruit trees. Of course it would be interesting to see what's inside that old renovated farm house!

Points to Ponder

• Do you agree that we understand people more when we visit them in their environment?
• Do you like inviting people to your home or are you more private in that regard?

I hope that you enjoyed coming for a walk in The Old Dog's yard!

Until next time,

@kus-knee (The Old Dog)

Remember, I reward the best comment(s) on each of my posts with my "The Old Dog is Throwing You a Bone" program! So please re-steem and follow so that we can spread the wealth!