Another thing we did while my dad and stepmom were here over the weekend was to invite some neighbors over. I told Jeff that we needed to have neighbors over at least once a year, and he agreed. (Though we keep it fairly small, we have limited parking here.) We set up a table in the garden for a potluck. We chatted and caught up. And then we sat around the fire and did some music making. There’s something so primal about sitting around the fire with a group of people and making music, a feeling that it’s how things are meant to be.

Jeff had been working to get our fire pit area ready for the occasion. He had the idea to re-purpose two pieces of an old wood stove we had (that no longer worked for a woodstove) and it worked out perfectly for our fire pit. (I should add that’s it’s dry here and we took plenty of precautions to make our fire safe.) One neighbor commented that we haven’t gotten “out and about” much for nighttime events since having a kid. (Not that we really did all that much prior to that.) He’d be right about that. We really value our sleep! It takes me awhile to recover from a night with less sleep, but when we’re having great fun and it’s only something we do on occasion, then it’s something we really enjoy.

Bracken has always been enamored with fire and when everybody started heading home, he burst into tears, saying something along the lines of: “I’ll miss you fire!” Jeff, Bracken, and I went back to the fire together and sat there for awhile until the fire burned down enough for us to go inside. We looked up at the stars and sat listening to the night sounds around us. Bracken declared we should have a fire in the backyard once a week, bless his heart. We do have plans for another one soon. I said yesterday that summer doesn’t feel complete without blueberry picking and swimming, I’d say it also doesn’t feel complete until we’ve sat around the fire at night at least once.