Hydrangeas in the Desert

“The greatest wealth is to live content with little.” (Plato)

I can’t believe it’s the end of June already. Half a year – just gone. Time flies, and we grow old. Not much we can do about it, I s’ppose, other than wake up every morning trying to make it better, more fruitful, or, why not, simpler …

My friends are out there traveling the world. Others are being promoted to the title of their dreams. Others are yet getting more and more degrees in education so high it makes me dizzy. There are people building families, and others picking up the pieces after demolishing them. People conquering diseases and others writing books and building a home with their bare hands.

I have respect and awe for all these challenges and accomplishments of all people I meet every day. But today, for me, I am just simply grateful once again for every nugget of quiet in my life. For every breath of every day and for every day, however unexpectedly it decides to creep up on me.

Today, I am just grateful for the sunset on my back porch and that for the first time in three years, my hydrangea decided to bloom, in the desert. Today, life is simple and quiet. As quiet and simple as rain drops on leaves … 

 

Fire, Cheap Beer and Butterflies

" I thank you God for this most amazing day, for the leaping greenly spirits of trees, and for the blue dream of sky and for everything which is natural, which is infinite, which is yes." (e. e. cummings)

That, right there, pretty much summarizes my camping craving and my camping trips.

Last year, we didn't go camping. And let me tell you: I am still mourning that predicament.

This year, we're planning for several trips, but we got at least one in before the summer leaves us, on Hobble Creek Canyon, right above our house.  Mostly.

Here's the story of that weekend, in pictures that speak louder than I could. 

There is something esoteric about a camp fire. Something metaphysical and deeper than the regular human realm, that projects your mind into deep thought, looking for even deeper meaning, just like ocean waves or sunsets. We have a fire-pit at home, but we almost never use it. The fire in the woods, wrapped up in trees, loneliness and cicadas' noise is what our summer dream is all about

   

 The butterflies were insane this year! So many species and sizes and colors and they were everywhere ... When we crossed the river, we almost had to step on them to be able to step on the rocks to carry us over to the other side.

 

... and this is what I mean: butterflies on the rocks in the river. My favorite spot to camp is by a stream. There is nothing more soothing than falling asleep with the sound of the water hitting the hard rock - the most perfect music ever written ... We were lucky enough to find this spot this year, and although the campground is fairly small, we shall be back - for the stream, and the quiet, and the butterflies ...

 

This log reminded me of a Texas longhorn - right?!  

 

I have never camped in a spot where there were so many bugs! Just all sorts of bugs, but mostly, these red ones. In Romania, we call them The Lord's Roaches, and you can't squish them, because it's a sin. I didn't kill them on purpose, for sure, but they were so many, like a blanket on the ground where we laid our tent, that some of them fell as victims, I am sure. They're beautiful and do no harm at all.

 

   

The food - of course, the food! We had Bush's baked beans, Hebrew National hotdogs and baked potatoes the first night. I can still taste the brown sugar in those beans! The smoke of the fire does something else to them ...

 

What can be better in the morning than fresh eggs and a side of meat - this time, Canadian bacon - fried in a cast iron skillet, like it's meant to be?! Oh, yeah, and leftover hotdog buns are great for dipping in that semi-soft yolk!

 

 

Dinner the second night was chicken, peppers, corn and potatoes in a garlic sauce, all sauteed over the fire. And eating it straight from the "pot" is how you do it at campsite ...

 

  

My drink of choice, usually, when I camp. Just pure American water-y beer is the perfect  drink on a warm summer night. Would you believe they made the can "popper" so stylish as to copy the shape of the Budweiser crown?! Attention to detail is something else ... 

 

This was just one sneak peek from our hike that weekend - it was a picture perfect day, with clear skies and not too hot. Everything is so green, so vibrant, so full of noise and color and life, even in this drought we're having ...  

That's me, dirty, sweaty and unkempt. Yep, the "real" me, at campsite. I am looking into the future, and hoping  that there is a tent in every summer that the good Lord will indulge me to have ...