glorious afternoon

We've moved our villetta several (several) miles and are now at our favorite local campground. It's almost like a second home as we've spent at least half a year's worth of nights here over the years. After a summer of not camping it is nice to be in our 'other' home.

It may have been that we were feeling too lazy to load the panels onto the back of the trailer, or maybe we wanted to try a trip without the fence, but either way, we have no fence for the dogs. When outside they are tied up to a few 'anchors' (big water jugs) or the picnic table. It is a landmine of leashes - it will be a miracle if we don't trip and land on our faces. There are pros and cons for each configuration… lets see if we can hold out or will Carm have to drive home to pick them up.

We haven't spent a summer at home since we started camping 10 years ago (oh my gosh, 10 years!), so made a decision to try it out this summer. Between Kirsten's visits and all the hot swimming days we were very glad to be home. We were blessed with a fantastic summer.

I got my birthday present a bit early (or it could be considered late) as we just booked a cruise in the Caribbean for November. We've never been cruising, and for that matter we haven't gone away on a plane together since 1991 - a long time ago. We're going with Jo Ellen and Don who are seasoned cruisers to show us the ropes. It will be fun and I've very excited. They are coming to camp tomorrow so we can make excursion plans.  

We had thought of a simple week in Italy but after checking the temperatures and rainfall we decided to wait till late next spring. We'll start planning now though, isn't that half the fun?

Blustery would be the best way to describe the weather yesterday - we didn't even feel like going for a swim. Our last swim of the year was on Sept 10 and it was lovely (not even the coldest we've been in). We've had a fantastic year for swimming and are glad of our decision to put in the new pool.

I have that 'peaceful, easy feeling' that I get on the first day of a camp. Life is good and I feel so lucky to be so privileged.

"Dogs are our link to paradise. They don't know evil or jealousy or discontent. To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring--it was peace.”   ~Milan Kundera