a year ago today

A year ago today I was planning a camping trip by the sea for my summer. I had not yet learned how to press flowers, my age was twenty one, and I believed a visit to the sea was necessary like air or pollen where the honey bee travels. I saved every dollar, I read field guides, I dreamed of moss and the smell of dinner roasting on a campfire. I never once thought of fear or how I would keep milk for morning oatmeal cold. I only thought of happiness, seawater, sleeping in the arms of my loved one, and a list of necessities such as a working flash light, warm clothes, and canned food for coating our bellies.

 When June came, we left the city for seawater and traded the prairie for an old growth forest. We slept in our van every night and awoke to the sight of cedars and red firs breathing in the same air. We brewed cowboy coffee in a blue canister and drank it while the sun poured marigolds onto our foreheads. If there ever was an hour I loved most while camping, it was the first breath of morning, those early hours brought birds into daylight and made us feel alive.

A year ago today I was building a garden in my head. Now, I wonder where the time has gone. It's already March of a new year, a week away from April and soon the blossoms will be here to trick our eyesight into believing winter never was. I may not have seawater or a trail that leads to a dish of blackberries ripened by the sun. I may not have cotton blankets scented by nature's potpourri or mornings brewed with cowboy coffee. What I do have now is prairies on my feet and mountains in the skyline. I have frost warnings and flowers that grow mad in the wind. I have my grandfather's dusty binoculars and a green hat that makes the ravens in the ravine cackle.

On blue Sundays, I will long for the sea and dream of my hair being curled by the salt, but every other day I will remember those who have never been ocean bound. I have been to the seawater. I have swam. I have cut my foot on the ocean's teeth. I have heard the rocks and seashells sound like an orchestra. I have fallen asleep in the sand and woken up sunburned. I have been ocean bound and I will be again. For today, the memories of a summertime camping trip will keep the sea within me.

Where were you a year ago today?

The Outfit
Dress Chicwish
Boots Value Village


  1. Oh, what a lovely outfit! And I've always wanted to go to the sea ♥
    Amy xx

    Perfect Imperfections

    1. Thank you fellow Amy!

      I want to go to the sea today!

  2. I love that emerald hat! Beautiful coat too Amy!

    1. I found the emerald hat on a whim and debated forever if I should purchase it. I'm glad you love it too!


  3. I don't know where to begin with the beauty in this - the words, the photos, that GORGEOUS hat and coat.... your posts are always like a breath of fresh air. Birdsong on a grey and quiet day, or a single flower in a mown field.

    I have always wanted to live by the water. Family holidays when I was little were always spent by the sea - salt-stung legs and wild hair, eating cockles from cups and walking barefoot on the pier with sticky fistfuls of candyfloss. I love the seaside in Winter the most - the quiet stretch of cold sand, and the white lines the foam makes on the grey water, the pencil line of horizon between grey sea and grey sky.

    But how I envy you also, with your beautiful greenness, and wide open skies. Sometimes I feel like I can smell the pine when I've read your entries; the scent of woodsmoke, and all that air. It seems to me that the world has all these pockets of beauty and wonder, and there is so much difference between them, but they are all equally beautiful for that.


      Thank you Cheryl,
      Your comment sounds like poetry to me,
      such a pure and beautiful sentiment.

  4. Lovely colours! <3

    1. Thank you Sophia! March calls for me to wear green :)

  5. I cannot with these wonderful posts of yours! I wish they were in book form so I could read them over and over again. Your blog never fails to make me smile, it's like a little comfortable corner of the internet you can always return to when the world seems too big.
    x Erin
    The Halfway Point

  6. Your writing is so inspiring :)

    I grew up surrounded by the sea as I live on the south coast at the very bottom of England. Now I live in the city, I feel constantly the tug back to the ocean and count down the days when classes finish and I can go back to my family ^.^

    I've never seen a prairie or mountains, but they sound incredible :) ♥

    Thankyou for having such a beautiful, peaceful and enchanting blog

    Sarah xxo |

  7. Anonymous5.4.15

    I loved this post Amy. You write beautifully.