Backyard Camping

Summer weather creates excitement in our neck of the woods to go camping. 

Loads of camp trailers travel up the highway on their way to a favorite nesting spot

for a weekend of relaxing. 

“Thousands of tired, nerve shaken, over civilized people

are beginning to find out

that going to the mountains is going home,

that wilderness is a necessity.”  John Muir

While our family enjoys a camp trip, at the moment we are having plenty of fun around the campfire right in our own backyard. 

The romance of the outdoors is better, in my opinion, 

than the latest movie, 

an ipod whatever,

a video game victory, 

or a restaurant meal.

  Why sit around indoors when the twinkling lights of God’s creation can canopy your evening?

We have been cooking over the fire or on the grill,

eating outside,  and musing over the reasons that food tastes so much better outside.  

It could be the chatter of squirrels and  the carefree chirping of birds to serenade your dinner. 

Perhaps it is the smell of dirt, freshly cut firewood,  pine trees, and nearby flowers blooming 

that alert the senses, 

my children think it is the anticipation of partaking in smores,

 

and more smores,

until another sticky gooey concoction could not possibly be consumed.

 

Being outside is relaxing to most people. 

Close your eyes and think back to the summers of your childhood.  

For me, there was running through the garden sprinkler, climbing trees, riding bikes and horses, swimming in the pond, playing in the tall grass, catching frogs, swinging on the tree swing

and laying on my back at night looking at the stars. 

Back then, we were always outside and never bored for something to do.

                                          
                                                I am ever so thankful for our cabin in the woods.

Outdoor is our way of life. 

It always amazes me that somehow the children manage to get dirty enough to be happy in no time at all. As if that were their expression of letting down their hair.  

The outdoors seems to beckon us all to unwind, settle our hearts, and breathe deeply. 

 

                                    Our backyard evenings are like a mini vacation, without all the packing. 

There is plenty of campfire smoke, mosquitoes, and ease to make it seem close to real camping. 

The only drawback so far has been the lack of good fishing,

and certain toddlers having marshmallow hangovers.

 

A long walk down the drive and through the woods is the perfect ending to the feasting and over consumption of puffy sugary white things.

 

                                                               “I went out for a walk
                                                and finally concluded to stay out till sundown,
                                                                  for going out, I found,
                                                       was really going in.”  John Muir