When you die, Mummy, we’re going to put you in bags and eat you,” said our four-year-old. He had just seen what happened to the pigs: they arrive, we feed them, they die and come back in small packages labeled Chops, Ribs and Jowls. After seeing a dead fox last week Bob’s been obsessed with time. Are you nearly 100? Can we all become infinity? How long until we leave the woods?
Before we left New Zealand, a friend of my mother’s said “You’re brave taking off” and my eyes welled up. I didn’t feel brave, I was scared. I couldn’t say, “I’m following my husband’s dream right now,” as that sounded like something a wife from the 1950s would say. But it wasn’t my idea to live in a forest. It was the Dimple’s dream to come to Camp, this place he’s returned to on and off since 1987 and bring us with him. A place where he could be his own man, off the grid and bring home the bacon. Literally.
From the moment we landed, if anything went wrong, my emotions reached for my trump card: “I didn’t choose to freakin come here, it’s not my place!” I would be lying if I said it didn’t cause friction.
I stumbled across that run-down cabin one day. As I pushed on the No Trespassing sign I smiled: my chap values privacy, even in the middle of nowhere.
Inside, the feeling overwhelmed me. There was his double bed, stove to make coffee on, the red armchair – that was on the porch in our painting, a small bedside table for a candle. Maybe a whiskey. There were no windows, just mozzie screens and the sounds of the forest right outside just as he had described. I heard a woodpecker knocking out a flat tune and imagined him: single, living alone, completely free. His sheltered private pool in the river just below, where he swam naked under the moon.
The Dimple’s past was lingering in the dust particles all around me, the place he healed and made peace with himself. The place where he wished for us, his family, in a future he hoped for. I whispered to him in the dusty darkness, “We’re here my lover,” and tears rolled down my cheeks. I had wished for him too from the mayhem of New York City.
We’ve held hands and jumped off a few cliffs, but shifting to the US has been the biggest. It was a leap of faith, for me. When my dear brother, Shaun and his wife, Tania and their three children visited last October – days after the murderer had been shot – I realized, as I proudly showed off our Camp, I had fallen in love with it too. Their delight with where we lived was validation we weren’t totally mad.
We went to a party in San Francisco recently and people said, “Oh you’re the couple that live in the forest, I’ve heard about you.” Together, united in our fruitiness.
One night I told the Dimple how I felt about the woods and he looked at me for longer than usual, “Sounds like it’s not just my place anymore,” he said. Like him, I’ve made peace with myself here; I too am reaching for a dream.
Thanks to all of you for reading this blog, you make me want to keep going. Happy New Year.
Angela Barnett 
Great blog Sis. I went and had a look at Rene’s old cabin when I was at Camp, because I was always curious where that picture was painted when it was hung in your Wellington house.
Camp is a special, special place alright. We all sensed that in our brief time there. It was a golden time of swimming, relaxing, biking, just being, at the end of two months busy travel.
Funny how I always thought I’d be the one who ending up living in the forest.
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Thanks Bro. I blame Nana for our attraction to nature – all that brisk walking along the nudist beach in Glendowie.
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As I read this i am lucky enough to be able to see in my mind where you are talking about, and i too am in love with the place, as i have been since i was 2 years old, the same age as ‘dactyl. I have tears in my eyes reading of your love story with dimple and i realize that is the same love story my parents share (altho they didn’t have to travel as far)… camp was daddy’s place, but mom went along, with the 2 year old and the 2 week old… but she was swayed and it is now part of who we all are… what struck me most, what is bringing tears of joy to my eyes, is that being part of YOUR life, and the awesome privilege you grant me by sharing your life (thru words and actions), let’s me see what my parents may have been like back then… and let’s me also see how in love YOU & Dimple will still be in your 70s. I adore you and your family and feel blessed every day that you followed your husbands dream (altho i would be the FIRST in line telling you NOT to, had we been mates back in NZ)… I love you… truly
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Thank you Cin. If we manage to create a family (and marriage) as splendiferous as your parents have created then we’ll be singing in the shower every day. x
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Happy New Year Ange – I so love reading your blogs, it’s sound like your’e having an amazing adventure – hope it’s just as fun in 2012.
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Thanks Kate. Cherry New Year to you too. x
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Amazing adventure Ange, very brave .. love to catch up some time & hear all about it .
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best yet ange. tears. subtle and honest and real. which, for me, the best writing is.
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Thank you kindly Mr PBS.
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Hi there. Totally agree that Camp is a very special place. The painting really is a realistic depiction of the cabin but only when you’re there, with the towering trees, babbling water and the smells and sounds of the forest, do you realize how magical and healing a place it is. Love you SIL.
P.S. Just finished the best Ham and Split Pea soup made with the last of ‘Sausages’ or was it ‘Bacon’?
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Bacon for sure. Bless his trotters, he was the tastiest this year. x
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And as usual it is that raw honesty that simply astounds me – I love these installments as soon as I see them in my inbox I click through and I come away knowing you are doing just fine….however clearly my lack of blog or sharing means you are unable to say the same for me. I guess simply because, life feels a little ground-hog and blogging “ground-hog” just isn’t worth reading! Happy New Pine Trees Fi XXX
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