Tag: Mosquitos

A Belated Summer Solstice Bonfire

How does one celebrate a summer solstice, the longest day of the year, the beginning of summer? Well, first don’t forget to plan ahead. I missed it. Second, you need to have the perfect evening…and we did…when we celebrated the longest day of the year a week later.

Free image off internet.

When I went to bed on June 20th I realized I had let the summer solstice come and go without fanfare. So, I decided to plan a belated celebration. We invited some friends to join us at Nerstrand Big Woods State Park for a picnic. The afternoon was a lovely Minnesota summer day with “just-right” temperatures and low humidity. Which, in turn, made for a beautiful summer evening.

We did a variety of things. First, we went on a nice hike, through the woods and around the campground. Next we built a bon fire (and I burned some old journals – I still have a few more to burn). We grilled brats over the fire and ate typical picnic fare. Yum.

Sitting around the campfire…always a fun activity.

While eating dessert we each read out loud a few poems we had found about the summer solstice. We enjoyed each one.

There happened to be a Naturalist program in the park that evening, All about Owls. The timing fit into our schedule so we went. Andy, the naturalist at Nerstrand, does a great job and we learned several nuggets about owls. The park has started offering more naturalist programs and we’ve attended a few, and alway enjoy gleaning information from Andy.

This was at the beginning of the program…more people came to fill in the benches at the amphitheater.

After the program we rekindled our campfire and made s’mores. I brought an opened bag of marshmallows that were kind of stuck together. We managed to roast a few for our s’mores, and then threw the other big blob of marshmallows into the fire. 

A nicely roasted golden-brown marshmallow made for a s’more.

I bought some sparklers to help us celebrate. Lo and behold, they were duds…we all remembered that term in relation to fireworks from when we were kids. We threw the duds into the fire pit and there they lit up and made beautiful sparkles amongst the flames. But fireflies made an appearance too, and let their light shine around us. They were better than sparklers.

A blob of marshmallows in the fire.

Last but not least, as we were getting ready to leave we noticed the big, beautiful moon shining bright through the trees, almost full (2 days to go). That was an unexpected treat as it had clouded over and we didn’t expect to see it.

Always happy to see the moon.

The most remarkable thing of all? We were out in this state park from 3:30 – 9:30 pm and did not have one mosquito bother us. We didn’t slap any, see any, or hear any…it was amazing, and certainly added to the enjoyment of the Minnesota outdoors. We had a great time celebrating summer.

Good-bye.

And now… the days are getting shorter…

July 2024

The month of July was a very unusual, emotional month for us –  dramatic negatives interspersed with unique positives…

A Negative:
A family member has been very sick.
A Positive:
My second cousin and his wife from Norway stayed with us for five days and we enjoyed our time together.
A Positive:
Our youngest son and his wife and two children, Zoey & Ezra, came for a three-week visit. 
A Negative:
I tested positive for COVID, and needed to curtail some activities. Thankfully I didn’t get very sick, it didn’t linger, and no one else caught it.
The camping cabin.

A stand-out activity with our two grandchildren from North Carolina, was a camping trip. We made plans to go camping with Zoey and Ezra when we knew they would be visiting us in Minnesota. Their parents had planned a getaway by themselves to celebrate special birthdays, so we made reservations for a camping cabin in a state park, about an hour away.

We enjoyed two campfires.

Camping never disappoints to create unforgettable memories. And we created memories. The biggest problem we encountered were the mosquitos, of course, and it also rained a couple of times. But we were able to do all we wanted to. We ate well (and outside)…blueberry pancakes, roasted hot dogs, s’mores, hobo meals… and we sat around the campfire, relaxed and read in the screen porch, had ice cream for lunch…we had fun.

We made hobo meals to cook over the open fire.

One of my favorite activities with Zoey and Ezra was writing and creating a book about our camping experience after we returned home. Zoey took notes as we all sat together and made suggestions as to what to write about our two-night camping trip and all the mishaps…much like The Berenstain Bears and Too Much Vacation. Both Ezra and Zoey got into this activity and we spent several hours on it. And I must say, it turned out well. 

Busy at work, creating our book.

Ezra dictated as Zoey typed it up in a Word document. Then I edited the six chapters, and it “went to press”. We printed copies to present to the parents when they arrived home from their mini-get away. 

The end product.

The book, The Very Crazy Camping Trip, became an instant success!