sussex county

I love Sussex County. When Paul and I were dating he would take me on long drives out to this corner of New Jersey that I never knew existed, all rolling hills, dairy farms and verdant summer grass. Even in the winter it looks like a winter wonderland. There is no snow in New York City at the moment, and hasn't been, so it is nice to see a place where they still have weather I used to know.
After a few years and learning about the downside of the country, I am still charmed. It is still a place of relaxing weekends and family and oddities. Such as the lamp above, which I saw in a junk store on Newton's Spring Street. The next evening, we ate dinner at the Walpack Inn, where deer come up to the rear windows at dusk like clockwork, because the restaurant leaves feed out for them each evening. So it is also a place of contradictions?
My husband's high school yearbook gives me pause, of course. Anyone who actually had ambitions made a point to mention in their "dislikes": Sussex County. I understand it can be claustrophobic and scary. I love dreaming about picking up, packing up, and living off the land in a place like that, but will my kids hate me for it? Will I?
I am glad I have the option, the understanding that the world is bigger than Brooklyn, or New York City, for that matter.