Food for the soul

I’m spending time with family in this week leading up to Christmas, and for Christmas day itself.

For a while there it looked like we may not be able to spend Christmas together because of covid-related travel restrictions.

To make sure we could have time together, at the peak of the restrictions we booked a place in the mountains in a ‘neutral’ travel zone that everyone in our small family could get to. In the meantime, the state borders opened up again, and then just closed again a few days ago after we got here. The situation changes unpredictably and fast.

This place has proven to be a wonderful choice.

It’s in a national park, and I’m currently sitting in the living room of this gorgeous house: It’s cool here in the mountains (it’s summer here, and usually sweltering). I’m looking through the deck doors out over tall trees of different types. Ghost gums with their smooth white trunks are the only ones I know; The rest are a variety of native trees that filter the morning sun. Bird calls that are both familiar and new filter through. During the day at various times and for no apparent reason, the cicadas go wild with their passion, sometimes so loud that we shut the windows to get relief from it.

They have bird feeders on the balcony. It’s arguably not great to feed native birds, but they have done it for so long here that the birds come to the balcony and sit there expectantly whether there’s food for them or not. King parrots and crimson rosellas who we recognise now by their slightly different colourings, huge sulphur-crested cockatoos that we have dubbed ‘Darryl, my brother Darryl, and my other brother Darryl‘, a persistent kookaburra.

A pademelon (a tiny marsupial similar to a wallaby) with her joey forages around in the grass outside early in the morning and disappears back into the scrub when she hears us. Tiny native frogs somehow make their way into the house overnight and we rescue them in the morning and put them back out in the bush.

We have taken long bush walks along winding paths that take us from the tops of ridges into the deep canyons and back up. The recent heavy rains have filled existing waterfalls to impressive cascades, and brought to life some falls that hardly ever run. I’m generally not a fan of bush walks, having long learnt that it involves pointless trudging through low scrub in the heat of the sun like some tedious chore that never uncovers anything of interest. The rainforest walks here, though, are stunning: Cool under the tree canopy and damp underfoot, there is an abundance of lush deep-green vegetation, sheer cliffs, dark caves, clear creeks, and seemingly yet another waterfall around every bend. It’s truly beautiful, and having the opportunity to bathe in nature and enjoy it is a blessing.

Meanwhile, I complain about this 24/7 time of peopling for I am difficult and it’s hard for me not to get irritated simply because we’re all in shared spaces from the moment I wake up until the time I go to bed. But I know without a doubt that I’m very lucky and privileged to have the chance to get irritated like this at all.

This is not a kinky post, clearly. If I had a submissive, he would probably be here with me for at least some of this time, sharing this experience with my family, going for these stunning walks, taking advantage of endless opportunities for small acts of service, running some interference between me and my family when he can see I’ve had enough, giving me kisses and cuddles, keeping an eye out for secret D/s signals that would make him stand to attention. He would be part of this with me.

Since I do not have a submissive or kinky tales to tell about our sweetness, let me share some of this natural beauty with you, dear readers. Food for the soul.

I hope that you and your loved ones are safe and happy over this holiday period, that you have the chance to hug them and be irritated by them, with more of the former than the latter. If this is a difficult time for you, I wish you much peace and tender care.

Sending much love out over the ether to you all <3.