Kokopelli Camping ~ Summer 2015

Laying in the camp garden I can hear crickets, a few people talking, and you singing on your picnic blanket under the olive tree doing your colouring. 

This place is just perfect. We are surrounded by nature. Entertainment is home made. The views are dramatic. I hope you'll remember them. If not, you'll see our photographs and we'll talk about our holiday at Kokopelli Camping. We've met some wonderful people coming and going from our mountain home. Young people travelling Europe with a tent and a dream. Families escaping the speed of the world. Everyone here is resetting themselves with nature, with the sunsets  and sunrises.

You've mixed with children from Belgium, Italy, Canada and the USA. Language barriers haven't stopped play.

You've relaxed in the garden, played on the terrace and chatted under the olive trees. It's peaceful here. We're peaceful here. 

The surrounding countryside is breathtaking. It makes you feel small. And alive. It's refreshing and real. 

You've drawn Magicland on your piece of paper. You say that every country has its own Magicland where the villagers gather to watch the moonpick flyers who live in Magicland. I think this place has widened your mind to thoughts of other lands. Where people speak different languages. Were the food smells different. Where the  wind whispers different words to you in the trees. 

You've changed a little on this holiday. You're more confident with other children and more content alone. Even if you don't remember Kokopelli Camping, I think it's made its mark on you.

Never be afraid to climb the mountain baby. Curious kids will have the best adventures.

You & Alfie ~ August 2015

I love you.

We'll always have Carcassonne

We've just come back from our lovely summer holiday in Carcassonne in the Languedoc-Rousillion region of France. 

You loved your holiday. You loved being there with your cousins and I'm glad we could all be there together.

Three amigos, exploring the neighbourhood and plotting pesky things! 

As much as I love holidays, in the same way as I always did, I now love enriching your life with new experiences as much as I enjoy them for myself. This trip was full of such experiences.

Medieval walled Carcassonne, where knights and princesses resided...in my version of the history, for you

The beautiful coastline at Narbonne Plage where you amused yourself running away from the waves and didn't want to stop

The Départ of stage 16 of the Tour de France in Carcassonne

I am so grateful to have been able to take you to soak up the atmosphere at a stage of France's greatest sporting event in its home country. There's nothing quite like it. 

You played your new harmonica for the riders as they went past

When I went abroad as a little girl I was always overwhelmed to be putting my first foot down on foreign soil as I stepped off the plane. The warm, fragrant air reminding me of holidays past. Poignantly, that feeling came rushing back as I watched you take your first little steps on French soil in the balmy July morning breeze. 

Other familiar childhood feelings returned through you on this trip. In my childhood mind there was always a distant fear of being lost abroad, a million miles from home. It was so distant that it never really surfaced but getting into the car and looking out of the back window at where I could have been left behind made me happier for having that distant fear buried in my subconscious. It made me grateful for the security I had. I was reminded of these feelings as I carried you through airport security and strapped you into the car, and as we left the house to come home again. That childhood fear of mine is now wrapped up inside you. You are now the 3 year old me that I must keep safe. 

“Not all those who wander are lost.” ~ J.R.R. Tolkien

 

Sleep tight baby. See you tomorrow.