Nature's Retreat For The Senses

When I moved downtown, the country girl in me knew she'd have to find a way to get her nature fix once in a while. This weekend, I got one.

I spent Saturday night and most of the day Sunday at a friend's campsite a few hours northwest of Ottawa, close to Barry's Bay. The campsite is a clearing in the woods off a little "cottagey road". Across the road, my friend owns waterfront on a small lake. Gorgeous. She has a tent trailer, a latrine & no running water. She calls it her little piece of Heaven; I call it a retreat for the senses. Here are just a few reasons why:

• the smell and taste of wild strawberries - I picked and ate my first one since childhood; the sweet taste brought me back home, where I'd spend hours picking them with my mother and grandmother as a kid
• the sight of stars, stars and more stars
• the sound of birds, birds and more birds
• the sound of bullfrogs, other frogs, and beetle-like creatures in a nearby marsh - bass, baritone and tenor
• the sight of a smoky, misty haze over the lake
• the sight, smell and sound of a crackling campfire
• the sight of two gorgeous dogs, a black lab and a golden retriever, jumping off a dock and swimming side by side to their master
• the smell of two wet dogs :)
• the sound of something lurking in the woods at night
• the sound of the loon - I heard one for the first time early Sunday morning and am forever enchanted
  

These thing are now engrained in my being. I'm already looking forward to my next retreat.