when the rain comes and your cup is spilling over ( happiness)

continued from here

the rain came as i sat there listening to the sounds around me and watching the three people i love the most laugh and giggle while they made parodies of me in their skits on our make shift stage. i laughed hard and somehow how it was as if the last of the sand in the hour glass that must have been me before the horse, the farm fell through. the page turned for good.  the fog came in and all at once k, elle and dylan said auntie you might want to take pictures.  even though rain still fell gently i gathered my things and asked if anyone wanted to go for a walk, everyone did and we headed out from our camp site down a dirt path and wooded stairs a canopy of towering trees drenched in rain surrounded us. this is  happy, i know it is.  i listened to everyone talk as they pointed to this and that as we walked. we arrived at the bridge over the river that we had spent our day swimming in,  the patina of the iron on the old bridge, the glistening wood from the rain fall,  filled my senses. we took pictures and walked some more to an abandoned house, a facade i had seen when we first drove in to the state park the day before. we took pictures of  what once must have been a beautiful farm house by the water and that hurricane irene tried to wash away last year, how beautiful was the sun setting through the windows. rain started coming down hard and everyone started heading back, but i lingered just a little longer, i counted the windows & green worn out shutters, some odd habit i picked up from childhood, like the amount of tiles on the floor or ceiling. i walked back behind the others completely drenched and content, for i was truly in the moment doing the very thing i needed & wanted to do.

when you find what you need in a beautiful weekend

i write to you as the house is quiet, the kids ( niece & nephew) gone to their uncles for a few weeks, k  in boston for a few as well. i am home reflecting on things, tidying up, not only the house but my mind and body too.

this was k and my first trip together in almost two years, farm life makes it impossible for us to leave together but we needed it, oh how we needed it. the night before we left for a weekend by the river in deep forest of vermont the odds were against us and it looked like i would have to stay behind when the vet was called for Tolstoy my beautiful draft colicked  but he recovered quickly and the vet said " i can't make the decision if you should stay or go but if i think you should go" the next morning we changed the horse pasture giving them pure grass instead of the wild mixed flower fields. packed the cars and went on our way. we were doing it going away like we had done so many times, kids ( niece & nephew), dogs and us.

we arrived in the town of jamaica, a tiny sweet town with the best camp store that ever was. we found our site, this not being the norm for us since we are back country hikers and usually do not stay at a camp ground of any kind, this one was a state park. our site had a lean to, a wood shelter to set your tent in but there would be none of that, instead we instantly decided it would be a  theater stage and every one of us would have to do a skit of some kind in the evening. we set up our tent, put things away and headed for a swim, the water was perfect the river beautiful. later there was dinner on the camp fire, card games, jokes, story telling and belly laughs.

 the next morning after breakfast we decided to go for a six mile hike to see some falls. the hike was beautiful, towering trees kept us shaded yet sun and glistening river were always by our side the last mile was an upward rock climbing hike arriving at the falls the scariest thing happened, grace our newfoundland collapsed k and i starting submerging her in water to cool her down as on lookers and the kids were nervous and frightened, k an i did not say a word just kept cooling her off, it took a while but she came through ( we believe it was heat stroke). honestly i tought i lost grace up there. when all was well again the kids swam in the falls trying hard not to look at the naked old man that was sunning not the view we were after:) our hike back was beautiful and we stopped midway to swim mid river, k, the dogs and i swimming there among trees and rocks, oh how lovely to have cool crisp water wash over you how easily we go on with our lives forgetting how much we loved to swim.  we made it just before the rain came and once it came it never ended but thanks to that lean to we hardly noticed as we laughed till we grew tired.

 * special thanks to our friend debbie for taking such great care of our animals, thank you!
*  i will have a second post about  a walk in the rain an beautiful fog