Easter bonfire at our barn, an annual tradition.
Bonfires have an irresistible draw for me. The heat toasting my face, the wood crackling and glowing and the flames dancing, the sparks lighting up the evening sky.
A bit of magic to make us forget this smartphone world for a while.
EDIT: Wow, there’s something to coming home to near 3.5k views and 40 Emails in the course of a few hours since I last checked! Welcome everyone who has found my blog via StumbleUpon and Freshly Pressed today! Hope you are enjoying yourselves here 🙂
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EDIT2: You guys are amazing! I’m at nearly 180 emails today 🙂 Btw the action is over here: My Scotland Post
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Our solstice weekend was spent near the Danish border in the north of Germany. My dad and his girlfriend celebrated their joint 60th birthdays with a big garden party, complete with a midsummer bonfire and singing.
We left late on thursday for the long drive north, spent friday at a beach at the Baltic Sea and saturday at the party before heading back south for a near 9 hour drive on sunday.
Deeply inhaling the salty sea air mixed with wood smoke from a crackling fire outside has recharged my batteries as only sea and fire can do. I needed it so much not only mentally but physically as well. I needed the step back, asking myself what the hell was I thinking overworking myself like I did in the last few weeks. Being a highly sensitive person overexerting myself is dangerously easy and I’m known to come home crying from exhaustion on a hard day. Unfortunately I’m too far from the sea to have its healing powers readily available! Having said this, I’m taking it easy this week, taking my time catching up on blogs and comments, sorting through the photos from last weekend and playing with the video sequences and of course, not working so long and hard. Have a good week!
There is typically an Easter bonfire at the barn, but as the past spring was unusally dry it was too dangerous to light it. The pile of wood lay waiting in the fields through the then following unusually rainy summer into fall.
The bonfire was finally held on Saint Martin’s Day (November 11) instead on a beautiful, cold night with a clear sky and a huge full moon.
Isn’t it funny how, in our world full of technology, we are still fascinated by fire and drawn to it. Dangerous on the one hand and warm and comforting on the other.
A moment to pause and wonder and draw a deep breath. I have always loved the smell of wood smoke, it’s the best smell in the world for me, right next to freshly ground coffee.
Amidst all the running errands and getting things organized, we have tried to quiet down a bit and squeeze a nap or two into these busy days. I’m trying to catch up with comments and emails but it’ll be a while, sorry to keep y’all waiting. But sometimes, all I really need is to stand around a big fire for an hour or two.
Our annual charity event at the barn took place last saturday. We always have a big kid’s camp for 3 days and on the saturday host an 1880 country fair for the public, having a rodeo and horseriding show, lots of fun games and selling homemade wares. All the money is later donated to charity, so it is all for a good cause.
All the men at the barn put an incredible amount of work into preparing for the fair, building little stands for the games and selling wares all winter.
Every little detail is tended to and of course all is handmade and handbuilt and handpainted.
I didn’t take as many photos as I would normally have, because I was helping prepare the fair and then sell stuff the whole day.
Also I am not comfortable with sharing photos of people on the internet without them knowing, so I’m sticking to still lives here.
The light at the counter was perfect in the evening and I took lots of lovely close-up portraits. As these two gals are my friends I hope they won’t mind sharing theirs:
And two more camp shots. I didn’t get many, so I hope these convey the athmosphere of the whole place:
With a tent and a fire and food and maybe a horse, what else is there to want in life? Sounds pretty damn perfect to me 🙂
little home by hand 