We are still camping.
This is OK mainly because the weather is good. In fact it is so hot we can barely move.
Keeping cool has become the main preoccupation of nearly everyone.
The tents are boiling hot all day. All vents are opened in an effort to keep it cool whilst limiting the number of bugs that share the space with us.
Wasps are proving an issue. They are everywhere. I now have a wash up area under cover (think camp site sink) Washing up dishes has become a danger sport, and I can be regularly seen running around with a dishcloth and a cup as I defend myself from a wasp onslaught. It isn't one, or even two. Most likely it is five or six all intent on settling on whatever it is I'm trying to clean.
We haven't made it to the coast, even though it is a measly ten miles away. Our days are full. We are building, moving mounds of earth, cooking, clearing up after the cooking, gathering fire wood, hauling water or boiling water. Living this way takes a lot more time.
I'm not complaining as this feels like truly living. Every day I am aware of the slight changes in the weather. I watch the horizon for rain clouds (there are none) and I notice the small things around me. The colours of the stones in the stream, the huge number of white butterflies and where they gather, the arc of the moon. Things that I would have liked to have known before now, but because I was cosseted inside I was not in tune with.
I am thankful for this time. I know that it will get easier, that we will put infrastructure in place, and we will some day have solid walls and a roof, but I am happy for now to wait, to marvel in this naturally world and pretend that I too am a wild creature at home in my surroundings.
This is OK mainly because the weather is good. In fact it is so hot we can barely move.
Keeping cool has become the main preoccupation of nearly everyone.
The tents are boiling hot all day. All vents are opened in an effort to keep it cool whilst limiting the number of bugs that share the space with us.
Wasps are proving an issue. They are everywhere. I now have a wash up area under cover (think camp site sink) Washing up dishes has become a danger sport, and I can be regularly seen running around with a dishcloth and a cup as I defend myself from a wasp onslaught. It isn't one, or even two. Most likely it is five or six all intent on settling on whatever it is I'm trying to clean.
We haven't made it to the coast, even though it is a measly ten miles away. Our days are full. We are building, moving mounds of earth, cooking, clearing up after the cooking, gathering fire wood, hauling water or boiling water. Living this way takes a lot more time.
I'm not complaining as this feels like truly living. Every day I am aware of the slight changes in the weather. I watch the horizon for rain clouds (there are none) and I notice the small things around me. The colours of the stones in the stream, the huge number of white butterflies and where they gather, the arc of the moon. Things that I would have liked to have known before now, but because I was cosseted inside I was not in tune with.
I am thankful for this time. I know that it will get easier, that we will put infrastructure in place, and we will some day have solid walls and a roof, but I am happy for now to wait, to marvel in this naturally world and pretend that I too am a wild creature at home in my surroundings.
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