Strawberry 2012

Apart from the transmission going squirrely, the radiator blowing up, and the brakes going out while going down New Priest Grade, we had a fabulous camping trip! (Those moments were hair-raising and we won't take the trailer out again until we get the car fixed, but we made it safely home, white-knuckling it all the way.) 

You know what I love about camping? How you can't do anything but relax. Our favorite camping trip every year is the Strawberry Music Festival, up in Yosemite. It's really glamping, not camping. We bring eggs, bacon, and booze. We make breakfast, but we purchase lunches, dinners, and snacks from the food vendors, making the difficult decisions between samosas, gyros, and artichokes stuffed with crab and shrimp.

The site where Strawberry is held, Camp Mather, has absolutely no cell reception, so even if I wanted to tweet, which I did, I couldn't. The phone stayed off for four days. Four full days. 

It's interesting, though, how even with big, empty days full of nothing to do but listen to music and lie by the lake, the days still fill up. Sitting in a camp chair, I can waste an hour wondering whether I'd rather read or spin (I brought my spinning wheel as I usually do. I don't know what it is about camping, but I love spinning in the open air under the pines). And then the day is over, and you've done next to nothing, and you're tired. You're exhausted from all the resting! It's pretty wonderful. 

I also knitted a lot, mostly on a simple shawl. 

I loved reading while lying in the trailer with its little windows open (that thing makes us superheroes! Everyone wants to talk to us about the teardrop trailer! It's like sleeping in a chihuahua! We were actually woken from a nap by a guy who wanted to talk to us. Um. Give us a minute?). I read The Age of Miracles while there -- have any of you read that one? I liked the book but thought it might have missed the point. Without spoilers, I can't say much more, but I'd be curious to know what you thought if you read it. 

(While I'm thinking of books, I also just finished The Care and Handling of Roses with Thorns, which I absolutely loved. About a rather cranky rose-loving teacher who needs a kidney transplant, I couldn't put it down. And Laura Lippman's new book, And When She Was Good, about a suburban madam, was also good fun, and as always, well-written and tightly plotted.) 

Best part of the festival? k.d. lang, all the way. She was amazing. I stood in the front row under the stars and screamed with all the other ladies. Worst part? The stress of driving home (we were prepared to stop at any point and get a tow, but after the brakes cooled off, the car just kept on going. I literally kissed it when we got home).

Now we're back at home. I'm finishing a book revision and doing copy edits on another while working a lot of hours. I'm looking forward to fall, always my favorite season. I smelled it in the air while we were in Yosemite, and it can't come soon enough for me.

Ah, the season of new pencils and handknit scarves.