the next town over

two words: ness creek.

such a lovely festival. we drove out with a mutual friend, fieldofdreams, who was on incredibly stellar behaviour. such a ray of sunshine fieldofdreams can be. the queen was excited; he and fieldofdreams had gone to the festival last year, and we were all meeting up with a lovely family that the queen counts among his closest friends - they were at north country too. this time their girls were coming.

we got to the site so late, it had closed, something i find amazing for a festival. so we turned around and drove down a long scary road to a lake, and camped there. in the morning, the queen and i got up and went swimming on a quiet beach. the water was fantastic - cool, quiet, tingly, clean.

i love rural environments because they still have dragonflies. i saw two little bluets mating on our tent. i sat and watched them for a while; poised, frozen but for tiny, occasional pulsations. fascinating.

we went back to the festival and found our pals camped in a far back corner near the drum circle. the festival is pretty folk-based and surprisingly chill. although my idea of chill was no doubt coloured by my sleeping through the nights. and napping a lot in the day. there was some great napping.

i heard a hauntingly beautiful accordion during one of my naps. not the kind of hauntingly beautiful that makes you think of unrequited ghostly love. just a bittersweet little ditty from a soul who's seen too much sadness today. every day.

like all things, the festival was a long, epic moment and then it was over and we were packing up the livingroom. on the way back across the border, the fuel pump "went". on some trips i've been on, this would have meant an expensive tow or being stranded until some garage could haul it in, order the part, etcetera. but the queen just sighed, unpacked the gear, opened up the back and fiddled around with some wires and some pliers. then repacked the gear and started the car and we came home. during my sighing and murmurs of manly heroes (wearing barrettes in his hair the whole time, might i add) he confessed it had taken a lot longer to fix the first time, on last summer's trip up to the northwest territories.

we saw foxes and the cutest little skunk. no bears at the festival, though previous years had told tales. and the milky way was milky. i miss this. this outdoor world reminds me of all kinds of wonder. sharing it with the queen brings me happiness.