Back From The Woods!

Before I give a little re-cap of our week away, let me just mention that I’m energized, re-invigorated, and I’m ready to go! This week I have several new posts planned, and hopefully, I can keep the mojo going.  I helped out with a wedding this week and made the most delicious appetizers- I hope you’ll come back to check those out!

If you remember from my camping post last year, we really rough it when we go camping.  We go with as many members of my family as can make it, and we set up in the woods, and settle in for a week of relaxing and enjoying each other’s company.  This year we decided to try a new spot, because this particular campground had the added benefit of a shower and flush toilets.   The showers were absolutely heavenly, but we’ve already determined that we’re not going back to this particular campground.  Oh it was so nice, and we had it mostly to ourselves all week too.  But there was one thing that plagued us this week that was really not welcome, and that was this uber-green water.

Truly, it was that green- no photoshop used here.  We didn’t dip our toes in the water once.  We also didn’t want to take out the kayaks or the canoe, because what if we got that green nasty on ourselves- and of course, we’d have to wash it off the boats.   We fished for the first few days before the green water was so incredibly green, but we got barely a nibble, and then when the water turned green, the mere thought of having that green gunk on our line and in our reels kept us from launching a cast even once.

Thankfully, the weather proved to be cool most of the week, so we didn’ t need to be in the water refreshing ourselves. Instead we sat around in the standard camping apparel of jeans and a hoodie- the hoodie was a must this year, as the mosquitoes were ready to carry us all away. The sounds of slapping and the spray of a can of spray could be heard at all hours of the day.  And to our horror- in the evening, the woods actually hummed from all the bugs contained within.

Yet, there were many bright spots this week- provided by the glorious nature around us.  The kids turned into expert explorers, seeking out both the unusual and the exciting.

We found mushrooms and fungus in many places.

On one particular walk, we found caterpillars munching on milkweeds- the very caterpillars thay turn into this beautiful butterfly:

There were other caterpillars too- inchworms galore, and this absolutely stunning pink caterpillar the kids found. (Sorry it’s blurry.)  Sadly, we learned this beautiful caterpillar turns into a very ugly sawfly.

There were also ripe berries to be had! While we had to gaze wistfully at the very green blackberry plants, we found plenty of raspberries to be had by all.  The gooseberries were also beginning to ripen- so we all sampled those as well.  I found the gooseberries to be kind of bland, actually, but I could totally see harvesting enough to make jam out of them, because they really reminded me of grapes.

And there were critters.  Most notably this week, we found that garter snakes were particularly fond of our camping spot.  This baby paused long enough to be caught and examined by the kids- surprisingly, none of the kids seemed to be afraid of the many snakes we saw during the week.  And in fact, it became a frequent activity to take my 20-month old niece to look for snakes, she was so fascinated by them.

All in all, it was a very good week, despite the green water and mosquitoes.  It was totally relaxing, and I think we all enjoyed ourselves a lot.  One of the biggest highlights of the week though was this:

Fire.  Normally when we go camping, Andy is the big fire bug.  We have a campfire going all the time, but this year, he had to come home to work for three days of our camping trip.  I proved to myself that I could totally play on Survivor, as I started the campfire up myself a few mornings this year.

Now reality has crept back in, and we’re back to the real world. Yet, I have a week in front of me that is almost completely empty- so I’m looking forward to it.  I have much to do, plans to be made, and this week, there will be actual blogging going on.  Stay tuned!