Marie, thanks for reminding me that Harriecanarie is the one that keeps me in line. I sorta feel like acting up, but I better not right now because Harrie is around. (I wish I had Ed's skills with the guitar. I'm more of a lyricist and just twankle around with my guitars.)

NNNNNOTTTT BBWB!!! I don't keep you in line....liar pants on fire!!!
In fact I like it when you ACT up your normal Act-Up-Self!! You are more fun that way!

Any by the way, I love your discriptions of feeling and hearing Mother Earth. A true way to feel the peaceful energy of the earth to nuture our Spirits. We can all use that. Esp me....esp today....

HarrieCanarie
BGHC

Oh-oh, got here too late. Only some charred fabrics remain. Harrie [Potter?], you ought to be careful with the power you have... We don't want BBB get 'burned' (But he's a smart guy, I am sure he escaped safely...:)

Thanks for the recipe Bill. I am definitely gonna give it a try. I need some relaxing vibes today. It is proving to be a very stressful week. I can feel the tension and headache mounting. I think I will bring a hammock and just chill by the fire the rest of the week. Wake me when it's over.

Hey WomanofSteel, I have a surprise for you My 'Lil Chickadee........I brought a hammock for you to chillout on and get into REM sleep. I even tested it out for myself to make sure it was the quality you deserve. I too have had a hard week and today no one or nothing with bother us, okay?

I'll make lunch and join you with a good Stephen King book and a Goofy stuffed animal and my own hammock I just dyed bright orange. Thank goodness for this fire.>>Believe51

PS: Hey, maybe if we do not snore our friends will be so happy that we are taking the day off and make us supper. Let's try to be quiet..Hehe.

Sounds like a plan. Orange is my fav color Marie. I could use a day off from cooking, so I'll be careful not to snore. LOL

Why thank you Marie, you are too kind. Oh the breeze feels lovely. I think i feel myself relaxing already. Ahhhhhhhhh!

I have cleaned up the campsite and replenished our stock. Fire has been burning long and hard. I threw my almond shells in the flames and they burned such a pretty color. I also threw all of my stress and fears to burn away.

I lay here unable to sleep so I meditate looking up at the clear night sky. I think how spectacular my relationships are, how beautiful nature is and yearn for gathering my own time to be able to experience more. I try not to think of why this is all happening to Ed and I, the reason does not matter. This is happening and we have accepted it without its reason for this is our life now. However, it is perfect Zen times like this that I get a little sad and right before I start to get overwhelmed and cry, I thank God for this moment and beg him for more.

I throw this message into the fire. Burn baby, burn. I throw the same message from you into it too. I pray for us all and whisper goodnight in all of your ears. As my son used to say to me as I tucked him in each night, "See you in the morning when the sun comes up." This phrase has since then become a special thought I whisper nightly and tonight it is to you all.>>Believe51

The Campfire
 

Thanks for cleaning up Marie. It is so beautiful and peaceful here, so we want to keep it that way.
We should take turns cleaning up and making sure the fire is going for everyone who needs it.
Here is a big thermos of pina colada smoothie for everyone.

I think it is time to have some virgin pina coladas and some shrimp kebobs roasted over our lovely fire. I think the Olive Garden near me makes the best coladas. I will have to find out their secret. Then, I will lie down in that lovely orange hammock that Marie offered me and listen to my 24 cd Stephen King book.

OK - who is tossing the pistacio nut shells around??

Marie had this place all tidied up. This is not a baseball dugout!

Shells go in the fire, please.

I know the nuts are good with the Pina Coladas.

Thanks Steph, I know I am a neat freak and I did not want to say anything. I think Brenda put them there so she could hear anything sneaking up on us. She tends to protect us like that. Bill has been awefully quiet, leads me to believe he is helping you to clean.

I am listening to the quiet. Normal people are sleeping right now. I am taking the third shift here tonight just to enjoy that peace and quiet.

I am amazed at how much comfort we find here. I will be making breakfast in the morning and you are not going to believe the fresh fruit I found. Rather sweet for this time of year.>>Believe51

MMMMMMMMMM fresh fruit sounds yummy. Of course I will share my cds with you Marie. I am rereading (listening) to the Talisman. After that I have Black House and a Patricia Cornwell book. I am also watching season 1 of the Pretender. My I have a lot going on here!

Hey, just found an amazing swimming hole in the river nearby, anyone up for a dip...skinny or otherwise?

The Campfire
 

Your home in the Poconos sounds wonderful. I wonder if there are any wild berries around here?
Maybe I can bring some of my herbs from my garden for you guys after they grow a little more.

Marie, sorry I've been quiet lately. I accidentally gave myself food poisoning on Easter Sunday and then wound up with a series of illnesses since then. I've been thinking of y'all alot, but this past week I've been struggling with pneumonia, but I'm getting better day by day. My wrestling coach (an amazing Samoan and an awesome fisherman) would place a fish-head in the ground wherever he planted something. He always had the best garden. I am gearing up to fish the Sound soon. I will bring plenty of fish to our campfire!

The Campfire
 

Sorry to hear you were "under the weather" Bill. I hope you are feeling much better and ready to challenge the world again.
I think I remember one of my grandfathers planting fish heads in his garden. He was a part time fisherman, a part time farmer and a part time something else, so I guess he found a useful way to multi task way back then. The fisheads enrich the soil.
How about making a smaller second garden next to our camp. Then we would have food right next to the campfire and not far from your lake (water source).
Maybe you would even give us a lesson or two in practical gardening to get us started if you get to eat some of the results. Smile. There might have to be rules about quiet times or areas for sleeping, praying, meditating and other quiet activities.

From our local paper today - perfect for this thread:
 

Life rekindled

by Fred Afflerbach | Business Writer
Published: May 18, 2009
Telegram staff writer Fred Afflerbach spent a recent week on vacation mesmerized by a campfire. Fred Afflerbach/Telegram

At a routine checkup following a weekend camping trip, our family doctor must have wondered how, at about age 7, I had singed my eyelashes. The campfire, I explained, got too close.

Four decades later, transfixed by orange coals and yellow, flaming tongues, I cross my legs on a stump, and put pencil to paper.

In a world where immediacy threatens our tranquility, a campfire provides an opportunity to pause and reflect. It soothes the nerves better than any sedative packaged in a pill, fermented and bottled, or rolled in paper for inhalation.

A campfire is relaxing because it stirs all five senses.

Like a breakfast cereal, dry oak branches snap, crackle and sometimes pop. And with a steady south breeze fanning the flames, a campfire sounds like a flag fluttering in the wind, or sheets flapping on a clothesline.

A campfire is a visual treat. Comparable to watching clouds on a breezy day, logs morph into arches, bridges, fire-breathing dragons or serpents. At my boyhood campfires, my brothers and I gazed into pockets where coals throbbed like they were breathing. We called them boiler rooms.

Campfires warm more than just the heart. On cold nights, I’ve stood before a campfire and rotated my body like a rotisserie chicken. Campfires heat only one side at a time.

Although you can’t directly taste a campfire, grilling pork chops, sausage or hamburgers over campfire coals brings out flavor no stove can equal. My father, Charley, and Uncle Raymond masterfully shoveled campfire coals under an adjacent grill suspended by cinder blocks. The trick - extract the embers without having to rebuild the campfire. At night, they nestled orange-red coals around a cast iron pot simmering with beef stew.

You can smell campfire smoke wafting across a pasture, fence, road. Take a slow breath - aromatherapy. Here in Central Texas, mesquite emits both a sweet, yet pungent odor and a live oak campfire smells like a scene from a Western novel.

I’ve learned to appreciate a modest campfire. Here’s a maxim from a fellow campfire lover: The white man builds a big campfire and stands back. The red man makes a small campfire and gets close.

Sitting by a campfire, I’ve enjoyed friendly discussion about politics, religion and family history, but never heard harsh words. Like Knights of the Round Table, all voices are equal around a campfire.

Ninety-nine years ago, a Vermont couple founded the first nonsectarian girls organization in the United States. They called it Campfire Girls because “campfires were the origin of communities.”

That communal spirit is evident today in the Southwest. For back porch fire gazing, we’ve adopted large, outdoor clay pots with a wide mouth and open top, called chimeneas.

President Franklin Roosevelt took the campfire spirit indoors. Aiming to inspire Americans during the Great Depression, his radio broadcasts were dubbed fireside chats.

With a long drought here in Central Texas, county officials have implemented burn bans that have doused my campfire plans for almost a year. Finally, spring showers turned the land green.

So, here in Mills County, I drop another log on a low campfire and recall why I purchased this small ranch, top-dressed with prickly pear cactus and a limestone outcropping. I’m not a hunter, rancher, nor farmer. For me, it’s all about the campfire.

Campfire tranquility glows inside us all. We just need an occasional spark to rekindle the flames. Singed eyelashes are optional.


Editor’s note: Before lighting a campfire, check with your county officials about a burn ban.

The Campfire
 

Very nice !!

Thanks, Jackie! That was really nice.

Gonna miss you here till mid-June
 

Maybe you will move the campfire closer to the water as Elaine suggested by then. I am going to a warmer climate in north/central Italy and am optimistically packing light!

However I am sure I will think of the campfire while inside those old cold stone museums and churches! Been trying to study Italian and refresh my art history knowledge ...

Will try to bring back some sort of goody to share with you all. Meantime - Watch what BILL eats!

The Campfire
 

Have a fantastic trip Steph !! We will miss you.
I am sure you will have many adventures to share with everyone after you return. We will look forward to the goody you will bring back.
Yes. It would be nice to move the campfire close to the water. That way we can take a refreshing dip in the water whenever we want and still be able to come back and warm up or dry off by the fire.

The Campfire
 

I dropped by to relax in my brand new hamock with a nice glass of iced green tea. Humm. It seems nobody has been tending the campfire. I cleaned it up a bit before I started relaxing, but I think it needs a big spring cleaning before we begin having summer picnics around here.

Hey Bill...

da da da DA da DAAA...CHARD!!!!

Hi everyone -
I am back on Terra Firma after a three-legged plane trip yesterday.

Hey Freyja - do you mean "chard" as in "chardonnay" or "chard" as in the green leafy vegie?? Guess I have wine more on my mind than veggies. They do not eat that many veggies in Italy. But, no problem finding wine!

Steph, welcome back, you will have to fill us in on all of your adventures and post pics!

fire
 

this is the fire dilly wanted to have while she was here.

Lots of fears and negative energy to toss into the fire tonight. Be gone you awful feelings, burn baby burn.

I will be tending the fire as I research over the evening so worry about nothing. I took snackies too>>Believe51

Marie, I will help you but all that rubbish. Will toss in more logs over it AND will light some fireworks around to get rid of any residual negativity! Hows that??!!

Oh yes Marie....for Joy too....great idea!