We don’t light the open fire often these days, but with Melbourne shivering and wet on Friday I cracked open the wood box and fired it up. As darkness set in we found ourselves at home each night this weekend so made good use of it. Funny how sitting in front of an open fire helps have good conversations, there were plenty of those which helped make it a good weekend.
There were some other ingredients too … Saturday was roasted pumpkin soup day, I stick a load of ginger and coriander in to zing it up; with crusty ciabatta it is a treat. And then last night we stuck a leg of lamb in the oven and chopped some potatoes, zucchini, capsicum, carrot, pumpkin and red onion, tossed them with fresh thyme, basil, and rosemary from the garden and threw them in with the lamb. Johanna mixed up a chocolate pudding … oh yeah. Add some hot chocolate with marshmellows left over from fire roasting the night before and it’s pretty hard to get off the couch.
We got Maria a new lens for her Nikon for her birthday which had arrived in store, so we ventured into town to collect that Sunday morning so she could play with it in the afternoon while I watched the football. Wins all round.
I am trying to teach myself French so I sat in front of the fire with ear plugs repeating new vocab, went for a swim, and did a bit more work on a ‘meaningful food’ project we’re working on – capturing the stories, images and recipes behind food that has, over the years, come to have meaningful associations for us. Saturday morning I joined Maria for her regular walk along Merri Creek, the early morning rhythms of the parklands offer a wonderful start to the day. Later in the weekend, Maria found some travel blogs which fuelled our discussion last night … helped us realise that there are so many people who share a resolve to integrate travel into their lifestyles and manage to do so without stacks of cash.
Meanwhile, Johanna practices her gymnastics walkovers and plays SIMS, Heidi wanders in and out of Mario (her caravan bedroom) to collect food in between studying and babysitting, Rachel, moves seamlessly between work, friend’s houses, and the couch in front of the fire, and Zac sits down to watch sport between various forms of exercise.
So how does a weekend at home get a guernsey in our yurting blog? Some weekends just seem worth capturing for memories sake. There was nothing extraordinary about this one, but sometimes the memories of ordinary stuff, infused with peace and joy, are somehow worth capturing. It has been well said many times, that the simple things in life are what matter the most in the long term.
And, let’s be honest, the anticipation of hooking up and towing our other home north, now only a month away, is keenly felt. Add the growing excitement of our adventure into Morocco, and other places in September/October and somehow a very homely weekend at home becomes part of the bigger adventure of life, where neither being in Brunswick, Byron Bay or Istanbul is better or worse, but simply different parts of the kaleidoscope of life.
