We're spinning plans of a move to the North country. Every year we talk about it, but in the past the ideas have been whimsies or wish we coulds. This September, somehow or other, we may have turned a corner. Our discussions have become much more serious and we've moved into making hard-core plans of how two people should approach such a change. Research, research, I say. Ken takes note of the people we should talk with who've transplanted themselves from suburbs to country. We're also making plans of an exploratory journey to Vermont in the coming weeks, before hunting season anyway.

We both want to experience something other than what life has to offer in the suburbs of Boston. Why should we spend the next ten years in the most expensive spot in the country? Land is cheap in the North; the winters are long--fortunately, neither of us minds winter, and as everyone knows, Sophie adores it. My work is not bound to any location. Most of my professional (writing and editing) contacts are by e-mail. I've worked for companies for years, and they have never once met me in person. It wouldn't matter if I lived in the heart of New York City or the wilds of the Adirondacks.

Anyway, we have a long way to go before any move is imminent. But we both now have intentions, and as we drove through the Champlain Valley of New York yesterday, we're becoming clearer about what each of us wants in a country place. I need good soil for a large vegetable garden, Ken needs some woods because, well, he loves the woods. I need access to excellent cross-country skiing (something we have oodles of in Canton (Blue Hills wilderness), lakes and streams for paddling, internet access, access to a good hospital and a good grocery store and not too far from a good university hospital (Burlington, Vermont?). And all my life I have longed for a horse or pony. I'm not sure that would be in the cards; keeping a horse in feed and veterinary care is expensive, but it would be fun.

So we're off on a new adventure together. All the same, I'm positive I'll get home to Canton, and I'll walk through the house and our bedroom and our kitchen and I'll cry, "I don't want to move! Not ever!" But that's an understandable reaction, one I've had many times before, and it has never held me back from making a change that I wanted and felt I needed.