by Krista | May 6, 2016 | Autumn
As we packed up our rain-drenched camp, Bear and I were sore and tired, not looking forward to 3 hours in the car to get home. As we loaded the last few items and tied down the tarp, our friend Adam made our day by inviting us to his place to rest our bones on his squishy couch and have a cold drink or two before heading home. We were delighted to accept.
Adam and Joy live on Bribie Island, a jewel of a spot only a few minutes down the road from where we were camping. We were welcomed with hugs and set down under a fan and served iced tea and it was all so wonderful after such a gong show of a night. We chatted and laughed and looked at Adam’s new sword and before long all the stresses of collapsed tent and soggy gear were gone.
And suddenly we realized we were ravenous.
So off we went to the Bribie Island Surf Club for some lunch. We got a table overlooking the ocean and basked in sea breezes and ice cold ciders. We shared a hot, buttery, garlicky damper (an Aussie style of bread) then tucked into all sorts of good things: towering burgers, salmon and mashed potatoes, chicken Parmesan.
Bear surprised us at the end with a fabulous cheese platter and we tasted and savored our way through until we couldn’t eat another bite.
With our spirits and bodies restored, we got back in the car and Joy took us to the beach.
With hot sun and salty breezes, I couldn’t imagine a better place to unwind.
I could’ve stayed there for hours, perched on a sand dune, mesmerized by crashing waves and swooping birds.
One of my favorite things about Bribie Island is how wild and natural it feels. While there must be some crowded areas, Bear and I have never experienced them. Even on a beautiful Saturday afternoon, there was hardly a soul to be seen. That’s my kind of beach.
We got back in the car, windswept and salt-tinged, happy and peaceful, our good spirits restored. While our medieval camping trip didn’t turn out as we’d hoped, it ended even better than we could’ve planned.
xo
by Krista | May 3, 2016 | Autumn
Sometimes the best laid and dearly loved plans run thoroughly and utterly amok.
This past weekend for example. Bear and I had been working hard for months getting ready for a medieval reenactor’s weekend with swarms of our best loved medieval friends. We were looking forward to it so much. Even when my left hand swelled up black and blue after being kicked repeatedly by a feisty lamb, and my right hand swelled up after being pierced by a stray wire that jammed in there, and Robbie cut open both shins when he ran into a rogue piece of iron, and I pulled a muscle in my foot – we were still so excited and hobbled along and got all packed up and arrived in time to get mostly set up before dark.
All was well…until the rain started falling…and falling…and falling. And bit by bit the dirt turned to mud and the tent pegs popped out and in the middle of the night, after a particularly thunderous torrent, the tent fell down on top of our friends, braining them with tent poles and dousing them with water. We woke to their cries of alarm and stumbled out of our tent to find sheer mayhem. Everything was down, drenched, and streaked in mud. Humph. We stood there in the rain wondering what to do and realized…nothing. Our friends took refuge in their van, we spent a sleepless night wondering how to get the camp back together before acknowledging, nope, we simply couldn’t. The sodden ground wouldn’t hold the pegs and the pegs wouldn’t hold the tents and with another storm on the way we knew we’d just have to pack up and head home.
So we did. And it was sad and disappointing and frustrating, but it was the right call. For the rains returned and didn’t let up until Monday. We would’ve been stuck in sodden misery.
Thankfully we had some lovely moments before we left. Starting with sunrise.
Even after a soggy, sleepless night, the sun rising through the trees, shimmering through wood smoke, glistening on the dewy grass, well, it can’t help but lift your spirits.
And when you get to take a break from folding waterlogged tents, tarps, ropes, rugs, blankets, clothing, etc and sit down at a table with good friends and have homemade medieval fruit cake slathered with butter, the world feels rather wonderful.
And when you add a cup of coffee and some good stories and hearty laughs and commiserations from friends stopping by to moan and groan with us and give us big, squishy hugs, all the rumpled feelings and stresses untangled themselves and we made peace with our mayhem.
We were sad to leave, but thankful for the few hugs and visits we were able to squeeze in before we left, for one meal cooked over the fire – is there anything better than hot stew on a rainy night? – and for the chance to figure out how to make our camp storm/flood proof for next time.
Bear and I have learned that when disappointment hits, the best thing is to feel sad then replace it with something good. So we did. And I’ll tell you all about that next time. xo
by Krista | Apr 26, 2016 | Autumn
It was a jolly and exhausting weekend with our good friends, Sue and Vincent, as we worked hard and played hard in preparation for our first medieval event of the season.
There was new garb to model with whoops and catcalls from cheeky onlookers, menus to plan, and a new tent to set up in the face of fearsome winds that threatened to send Sue and I sailing off over the trees like Mary Poppins as we clung for dear life to tottering tent poles.
We sorted and packed, unpacked and planned, debated and decided, filled out paperwork, and finally collapsed in relieved, happy exhaustion, ready for some ginger wine and fire-roasted dinner as the sun set through the trees.
I lit a fire in our cute little pot-bellied stove and put sausages on to cook. They are the Hungarian sausages I told you about last time, flavored richly with garlic and paprika, salt and black pepper, and they were absolutely beautiful charred and smoky from the campfire.
Sue brought corn on the cob and first we cooked it in the husks, then set it right over the fire to get a wee bit charred. Pure bliss smeared with butter and dusted with salt.
We toasted Turkish bread and poured more wine and finally collapsed into our chairs in the last rays of the setting sun.
With a chink of wine glasses and hearty toasts we dug into our feast and rested our weary bones.
We visited amiably as the sun disappeared and the winds died down, sipped our wine, laughed at funny stories and thought how there aren’t many things better than good food with good friends on a gorgeous night in the country.
This week we’re back to bustling, working hard to finish last minute projects and arrange caretakers for the farm while we’re gone. Bear finished our 12th century bed, I completed my Bedouin garb save for the silk ribbon trim that just arrived in the mail this morning from England. We made linen sheets and pillowcases and hauled medieval gear in to get packed away in wooden boxes for the trip. Today I’m at last starting a medieval quilt for our bed. It’s a lot of work but so much fun. We’re both excited to get to camp and have a good ol’ visit with our friends.
What are you looking forward to this week? xo
by Krista | Apr 21, 2016 | Autumn
After a still, cloudy day, the late afternoon is streaming through the trees casting long shadows over the grazing goats and dancing across my bedspread. It’s been a good but busy week, and I’m basking in this moment of quietness and light.
It’s been so nice to be out in my gardens again, nurturing the established silverbeet, elderberry, artichokes, and chilies, cheering on the newly sprouted sugar snap peas, broad beans, lettuces, and leeks. Yes, leeks. THEY GREW!!! After four years of trying unsuccessfully with different types of seeds and in various soils, I finally found success with Musselburg leeks from Eden Seeds in black soil enriched with worm castings. I’m overjoyed.
Bear has been working hard on a 12th century medieval bed. He found a “close enough” bed in a thrift store and we brought it home. He dismantled the entire thing, took out all modern screws, nails, staples, and other bits, and has painstakingly rebuilt, holding it all together with wooden dowels. It is nearly done and is so beautiful. I can’t wait to show it to you. But first I need to finish making linen sheets for it, and a medieval patchwork quilt to keep us warm on very frosty winter nights.
With our first medieval event less than two weeks away, I’ve also been paying special care to my medicinal herbs and plants that I use in my medieval folk medicine demonstrations. Next week I’ll be mixing a comfrey poultice for broken bones, elderberry cordial for sore throats and influenza, fenugreek gel for fevers, and my favorite boozy date jam that makes stomach aches disappear. (If you’re interested in medieval recipes for home remedies, click here to see my book: “herb & spice: a little book of medieval remedies.)
I’ve also been adding flowers to my garden, both to entice our newly arrived bees and for my own pleasure. I put in fiery red salvias, hollyhocks, vinca, and these gorgeous Hypoestes aristata, a gift from one of my gardening friends.
I’ve been adding more Australian natives to our farm – grevillea and bottlebrush – and magnolias, just because they make me happy.
This week my blueberries started flowering. They survived the summer heat thanks to a thick mulch of pine cones and pine needles that also help keep the soil acidic. Last year they produced just enough to snack on a few each day, but this year I hope to get enough to bake with, and maybe enough for some blueberry liqueur.
Today my friends Oma and Jess came over to teach me how to make Hungarian sausages. While I’ve been making Italian sausage and sage-y breakfast sausage for several years, I’ve never made authentic Hungarian ones before. It was so much fun!!! We made a seasoning slurry of garlic, salt, black pepper, and paprika and mixed it into the beef mince until it was perfectly sticky. It was the grown up equivalent of mixing mud pies, only a lot more fragrant. Then I manned the sausage press while Jess fed the sausage into casings and Oma tied off each sausage into long, fat links. 51 sausages later the kitchen smelled amazing, the bottom of my freezer was full, and we were more than ready for bowls of soup and a chat. I’m so thankful for kind people who teach me how to do such fun and nourishing things.
Although there’s been a lot of work this week, there have been many moments of rest as well. I’ve made time to read, watch NUMB3RS and NCIS: LA with Bear, and wood-burn this little wooden knife for me to use at medieval events. It’s small and delicate and reminds me of the wooden butter knives my Danish family uses.
Now it’s time to join Bear at the lamb pen and give Emma and Anni their bottles before it’s time for bed.
What good things happened in your life this week? xo
by Krista | Apr 16, 2016 | Autumn
“Rest, play, and be very, very gentle with yourself.”
That’s what my new specialist told me when I went to see her a couple weeks ago. She knew the therapies we’re trying would knock me flat for a while, so she wanted to make sure I was taking the very best care of myself.
I’m so glad she told me, repeatedly, for such things do not come naturally to me. When I didn’t know how to deal with trauma and the results of it, I became a first rate workaholic, an absolutely spiffing martyr, and my inner critic was given free reign to castigate me at every turn.
But I don’t need those self-protective, Survival Mode crutches anymore. Now I get to bask in safety, freedom, and a whole lot of love, and such a life demands a different set of tools to navigate it: rest, play, and gentleness.
So I’m learning to care for myself, and, I must admit, it’s ridiculously fun.
Rest
In the past I just focused on resting my body, but now I rest my mind and spirit too. Sometimes that means a movie marathon while tucked up in bed with hot chocolate and toasted, buttered crumpets, or sitting on the veranda with a journal, pen, and good book. Other times I sit in the shade of a big tree and watch the goats toddle about, or take Luna and Kebab (dog and sheep, respectively) for a walk with lots of stops for ear scratches and belly rubs (them, not me). This morning I took my camera out to my veggie patch and took pictures of dew drops on the asparagus fronds (pure magic).
Play
My friend Parker is really good at incorporating play into her life, so every day she cheers me on with suggestions and ideas that help me think of things that make my own heart happy.
This week I sewed a medieval Bedouin robe with poofy red trousers that make me smile. Bear took me and our friend Oma up into the hills for an entire day of jollity. We stopped at our favorite market stand and got enormous quinces, perfectly ripe Roma tomatoes, a whole bundle of leeks, and a stack of boxes filled with new season apples. Our car smelled amazing. Next week Oma and I are going to make Hungarian sausages together, and the week after that, Bear and I are getting together with dear friends for our first medieval event of the season. Such good, happy, soul-nourishing things.
Gentleness
I like spending time with people who are gentle with themselves, because they’re also gentle with everyone around them. They have a peacefulness about them, a confident way of thinking and speaking that is rooted in a deep understanding of human nature. They don’t have ridiculous expectations of themselves or others, but instead are comfy with who they are, at peace with their place in the journey they’re on, and accepting of the people they come in contact with. I like that so much.
For most of my life I believed that I had to love others, be kind to others, be forgiving and generous and patient with others, but I had no idea that I could and should extend those things to myself first. I didn’t know that those things can only come from a heart that is full of them already. I wish I’d know it earlier, but I’m so happy to know it now, so grateful that I get to spend the rest of my life filling up my own heart with good things that will spill over and link arms with the love of others. Loving ourselves, loving others, I think that’s how we make this world a better place.
“Rest, play, be very, very gentle with yourself.” What does that look like for you today? xo
