Home is with you by Kitsune-kun

Hello, My name is Kathryn and I blog over at Kitsune-Kun. When Damaris asked me to do a post under the theme ‘Home is with you’ the first thing that came into my mind was my grandfather’s cabin and surrounding land. I grew up moving about every three years my whole life, so I’ve called quite a few places home, but on the top of Monroe mountain in central Utah is where I’ve always felt the strongest ‘home away from home’ or ‘second home’ connection. It’s one of the few consistent places in my life since I was always moving so much, and I’ve never spent a summer yet without visiting at least once.

The whole area my Grandpa owns is called Lone Pine, and is surrounded by a handmade wooden fence built by my grandpa and his sons from tree trunks. My dad is full of stories about spending entire days repairing different parts of the fence, and it’s a tradition in our family to hike the perimeter while visiting the cabin. The distinct components of the area for me, are the main gate, which we would play and swing on as kids and watch the sunset- the lone pine meadow, where we would ride horses, picnic, and catch tadpoles- the aspen forest surrounding the cabin, and home to our fort and the campfire area- and, of course, our fort my cousins, sisters, and I made years ago.

When I was about 9 or so my cousins and I decided we wanted to build a fort and spent about a week dragging branches and fallen trunks from the woods to build this tipi-like structure. We would have picnics, tell stories, and play imaginative games when we were younger, and now it’s my favourite place to read. We had special entrances we designated around the woods that we had to pass through in order to access an imaginary realm we made up, like passing through two trees that looked like a gate, or scaling a fallen log across some rocks like a bridge. The fort of course only counted as our castle and somehow magical if we used the correct entrances.

Any time anyone asked me to close my eyes an imagine my favourite place, a peaceful place, or the most special place to me, this has always been what I immediately envision. A place very familiar and thoroughly explored, but visited seldom enough to always feel novel and forever special. It definitely has a real feeling of being ‘home’ to be, since it is steeped in family history and stories, it always evokes fond and intimate memories, and I always visit with my family members. I look forward to it every year.