Home Sweet Smelling Home

The last full day of camping is always bitter sweet. I'm not looking forward to the camp ending, but at the same time the thought of getting home is alluring. Sunday was no different, after a breakfast extravaganza (don't ask), we sat around and read. Around 4pm we decided to do some early prep to ease tomorrows departure. First the fence came down, then some other odds and ends were cleaned up.

While we were outside pottering around, we noticed a couple walking around with a map looking at the empty sites. I said hi and so they walked over... well, over an hour later they were on their way!  Suddenly it was time to feed us all, bird, then dogs, and finally humans. The last day was over :-(

Monday morning we were on our way not much later than 10:15. We had a mostly quiet drive home (don't ask), an almost perfect backup into the laneway - we were home. As I walked down the laneway I was almost overcome with the fragrance in the air. The lotus trees were dripping with white flowers, the peonies were budding, the irises were in their full glory. It smelled divine (I wanted to use the word smelt, but that seemed too much like fish). Everything had grown, including trees that weren't where they were supposed to be, plants of unknown origin, and established plants overflowing their boundaries - it was a jungle. But a beautiful one (at least to our eyes). I briefly wondered why we ever leave home.

We got the camper unloaded, then Carm got busy with the first half of the grass - which surprisingly wasn't as long as we thought it would be. It looked like late July grass, brown and dry. There must have been higher temperatures and less rain here.

Tuesday was a day in the city: lunch with Carm's mom; pickup Bailey, Grace’s friend coming for a sleep over; doctor appointment; Costco... and more. It was a long day!

Today (Wednesday), it was threatening to rain all morning, which brought the mosquitos out in full force. We spent some time taming the garden, but were driven in by those blood suckers!

The dull day didn’t keep the peonies from starting to open - my nose was stuck into the 1/2 open buds as soon as I saw them. Rapture. And luckily no ants up my nose ;-)

I had the windows open this morning, but the sounds of construction on the road drove me to shut them. Ruth, Bailey’s mom, may not be happy with me as the trucks seem to be backing up constantly, with their orchestra of beeps. Grace and Bailey already have a large vocabulary of squeaks and beeps – they don’t need any more!

Every day is filled with pleasures – idle and otherwise.

To be poor and be without trees, is to be the most starved human being in the world. To be poor and have trees, is to be completely rich in ways that money can never buy.  ~ Clarissa Pinkola Estés