'The Olive Farm' and Me

When ever we go for a vacation to places of bountiful nature like beaches, mountains or some remote destination, we dream to make house there and stay there forever but then reality bug bites and we immediately come out of our imagination. Provincial and Mountain life is difficult and we know it for sure. City people finds difficulty to adjust in that routine but Author of the book Carol Drinkwater who is 69, an actress, writer and filmmaker dare to make that dream come true. She is currently living provincial life in South of the France for more than 25 years out of her sheer love for farm and beach.

I read her first book The Olive Farm(2001) and I was hooked to it from the first chapter and was constantly dreaming to have my own farm house. An actress who left sophisticated life and fell in love with provincial life where she had to do everything on her own was intriguing. More I read about her journey more I was falling for her hard and serene life. She fell in love with man whom she hardly knew and both went to invest together in really big property and that is where the whole Journey begins. 

I find ‘The Olive Farm’ more of a spiritual journey of a person who have experienced almost all emotion of her life and she is prepared to tackle any obstacle without letting it affect her inner peace. It is a story about Possession, People, Family, Acceptance, Culture, Hardship and unpredicted Nature. I enjoyed reading this journey till the end. 

I felt I am cleaning her farmhouse with her(Carol) and her mother. I felt like I am there when her whole family is enjoying summer vacation together at the Appasionata farm house. I was hurt when her dog disappeared. Her dream was to create a house where every now and then family, friends, artists and tourists drops by. And yes every now and then somebody visits her place. Writer always need a solitary moment and Carol had lots of it. Most of the time she writes near window facing to the sea. I felt like I am witnessing the scene from neighbour window. To keep her dream intact she had gone through lots of ups and downs. At one point of time my heart skipped beating in fear of losing this Farm and House. But in every difficult time she was patient and there was some energy which was giving her strength and making things right for her. Her journey made me feel that you just need to visualise your life and one day it will become reality.

The Olive Farm was very light read. And nature lover, day dreamer like me will definitely lose their self in the farm. 

You really have no idea what is going to come to next in your hand. Just talking about books, at least I don’t know about my next read. I randomly picked up this book from travelogue section. Title  ‘A Memoir of Life, Love and Olive Oil in the South of France’ caught my attention. I just read that and glanced at author’s name. Twice I picked up this book and put it back in the rack because of unknown author and its subject- farming. I mean who would like to read about farming, right?And then I moved ahead and was about to pay for my another purchase but something brought me back to this book again and I read summary behind the book and that made my mind not to leave this book.