If you follow me on Twitter – or was watching the 6:00 p.m. news last night – you already know that a massive tree fell over in our backyard yesterday morning. Thankfully, it fell in the right direction and no one was hurt, but the What Ifs have been filling my brain and I’m still on edge about it all.
This was the scene at around 8:30 yesterday morning.
Here’s another view.
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In part of one this post I mentioned we had forgotten to pack some critical items for our overall camping success:
1) A frying pan
2) A dust pan
3) Dinner plates
I knew that not having this things wouldn’t destroy our camping trip, but they sure are nice to have, aren’t they? The frying pan is for the obvious. Anything that can’t easily be cooked on the grill can be cooked in a pan. And the dust pan is for the sand which will inevitably find its way into the tent. I’m not dirt phobic by any stretch, but the sand we track in makes me a little crazy. And the dinner plates? I tried to be optimistic about their absence. It meant there’d be fewer dishes to wash, and better portion control as we ate everything on the smaller, lunch-sized plates, right?
We had to make some adjustments. For example, our first breakfast was drawn out more than usual. First, we had coffee and juice. Then, we waited while Mark fried the bacon a few slices at a time on a makeshift frying pan (yes, you read that right) constructed out of a foil tray lined with more foil. When the bacon course was complete, I mixed up the pancake batter. Then Mark made pancakes, a few at a time. And we took turns eating them hot off the ‘pan.’
As per our camping tradition, we always set off on a hike after breakfast, and we always start with the easiest. At Achray, it’s Jack Pine Trail. It’s a short walk that takes visitors out to see the setting of Tom Thompson’s famous Jack Pine. (Which you can see and read a bit about on the National Gallery website.) At the end of the trail, or should I say, the climax of the trail, there’s a rock face you can scamper down to reach a natural beach. If you’re lucky you’ll see a little waterbird or two running between the incoming waves.
The walk back included a bullfrog sighting, wild raspberries ripe for picking, and a monarch resting amid a field of milkweed.
Camping has permanently changed for us. When the girls were small they required constant supervision, and although they were pretty good at entertaining themselves, they still needed a lot of attention. Now, we are four adults (almost). They take care of their own needs and are very good at helping. I can’t imagine setting up the tent without their help anymore. We let them start the campfire on their own too. This year they baited their own fishing hooks and removed and released the fish they caught. I am one proud momma, that’s for sure.
What kind of camping family are we? This is something I’ve thought about. We aren’t one of those families who belt out show tunes around the campfire. We stare into the embers and poke the fire with smoking sticks. We are a family of photographers, minnow catchers, nature lovers, readers, and Uno players. Mark called Achray “an introvert’s paradise” and I think he is right. This campground is radio-free, and since there are no showers here either, it seems to get a pass by a whole segment of the usual camping population.
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So I was brushing my teeth at one of Achray’s pseudo-comfort stations (think: a pair of flush toilets and sinks, co-ed) and had a foamy mouthful of toothpaste when I noticed some guy standing awkwardly on the outside of the building, kinda watching me. I looked over at my eldest, who thought he was waiting for a sink so she skirted closer towards me. I looked up, and it was our friend Pete! Mark and Pete have been friends since high school. To make a long story short, we had company around the fire that night and borrowed a frying pan in the process. It was destiny.
I’ll be writing more about the Achray, and some of the things we did while we were there in my next post. As long as more trees don’t fall in our yard. Sigh.
