Friday Links: The Great American Backyard Campout!

Getting outside is what summer is all about. If you can't go camping away from home, go camping in your backyard! If you don't have space in your backyard, go camping right in your own home! Pitch a tent, or create one! Pull out the sleeping bags and the flashlights. Enjoy the night sky, and the sounds of the out of doors. June 28, 2014 is the date for the Great American Backyard Campout!  Mark your calendars!

Thinking Outside. (No box required.)

I spent every weekend of the year, every school vacation and every day of every summer living on a lake in Maine. My parents bought their lot on the lake when I was a preschooler and my Dad cleared it and built the house that they now live in. He worked on it during every spare moment with my Mom.  I learned to drive a nail, put in windows, how insulation works, and lots of Yankee ingenuity for saving money, power, heat and to do a job right the first time. Not fancy. Nice. Nice is good. Fancy was a waste because you can't live in fancy without worrying about it. ---But I also spent most of my time on the lake, in the lake or in the woods. My parents let me roam...on foot and by boat and canoe. If they worried, they shook it off, because they never said anything. Just "Be careful." and "Be home before it's too dark." and "Get off the lake before that storm comes through."
I'd get up in the morning before they did, eat quickly, and write a note something like,
                                Gone out in the boat. Back around lunch time.
                                                                     Love,
                                                                          Lori
And I'd be gone.

The sun and the lake and the putt-putt of my 1968 3hp Johnson engine (with a built-in gas tank) was the perfect way to spend every morning...or afternoon...or evening. If it wasn't the boat, it was the canoe...silently paddling in the marsh or through the duckweed, stalking the heron or the frogs across the lake. Or it was wandering in the woods, along the stream, up to the field with the boulder and apple tree. I'd read, fly my kite, play my guitar, and write. Bliss. That freedom and that place taught me that stuff doesn't matter much and that the world was really big, but that there are havens in it...outside.

I'm not really a sun-lover...but those mornings out in the open air, enjoying the breeze as it blew down the cove make me miss being outside. I loved being outside enjoying the air and the breeze and the birds and the trees. And I still do.

It's for that reason that I love working on my deck in the mornings. It's a sense of peace that I can reclaim a little tiny portion of. I have flower boxes on the railing. Pansies, sage, rosemary, oregano and basil...and  lots and lots of lavender. Funny how purple has always been my least favorite color, but that lavender is becoming my favorite summer flower...just because of the smell. Strange also because I didn't grow up with lavender. I grew up with pine...lots of Maine woods smell.

This last January on one of our frequent stops at the market I saw a "Christmas sale" in the floral department.
One a rack were a few "Charlie Brown Christmas Trees"  $2.99
I couldn't say no. The worst that could happen would be that it wouldn't survive. I fully expected it to bite the dust a few weeks later. My love of pine and trees and, well, Christmas made me grab that little thing and cart it home.
This morning, on my deck, I repotted it. Because it's growing...and growing. And it's another piece of my air. I'm not on the lake in Maine. But on my deck in the mornings, the air...the lavender, and my little Charlie Brown pine make the day more worth starting. I need to be outside. More.

Friday Links: Surfnet for Kids

 

Surfnet Kids is a site that I've been subscribed to for years. Daily great stuff is posted that is topical and perfect for kids to explore. You can get it sent right to your mailbox...or visit the site for more. This would be a great one to bookmark for summer. Rainy days...hot days...sick days. Learning can still happen and Surfnet is a great catalyst for all that great stuff.