Intrepid exploring and sunburns... cont'd.

What with having to drive my sister to work for eight this morning, I was out of my pyjamas a little earlier than usual [yes, I get up in the wee hours of the morning, but that doesn't mean I get out of my pyjamas before nine], so I decided to set up my Hennessy Hammock today. For those of you who don't know what a Hennessy Hammock is, it's a hammock tent, and I happen to own one of these very exciting contraptions - a going away gift from one of the directors of the board I used to work for, the creator of said hammock.

The ingredients

Now, I am no Boy Scout. I don't do knots, and I definitely am not an avid camper. My experience with hammocks involves napping in my tie-dye one on my back porch on warm summer afternoons. My experience with tents is limited to camping in my basement at the ripe old age of eight. So this was bound to be an adventure. Now, I first decided that there was no need for the webbing straps - I would just wrap the ropes around the poles of the auxiliary cottage a couple times and tie it off with one of those shoelace knots. Sounds legit, right? Nope. That fell off pretty much right away.

Attempt #1

So after some discussion with my animal friends - Cinderella style, I am, after all, an intrepid outdoorsman - we decided to go on a quest to find two trees that were far enough apart that the hammock would be at the correct height, but close enough together that the ropes would have enough length to tie off. The trees also had to be thin enough for the webbing straps to go around, and thick enough for the webbing straps not to just slip down. After much consideration and deliberation, my cat friends, and my dog advisor agreed on two very nice trees. After much struggling, making up of knots, and fetching giant rocks for anchors, a tent was formed.

Attempt #2 : Success!

After that, the animals and I were pretty much done adventuring for the day. I threw a stick for Simon for a few minutes, while the dog just ate rocks or did whatever she does when she gets all quiet. Meanwhile, Betsy was rocketing around like something was chasing her - the itchy scaries might have been, you never know, they're pretty sneaky - and climbing many trees. All the trees. Every. Single. Tree. Simon tried to bite Betsy's legs off, Betsy proceeded to run around some more, I washed the dishes. 

Simon tries to bite off Betsy's feet

After all that commotion, we all took ourselves out to the sun deck where basked and enjoyed the lovely warm temperatures for a few hours. Eventually my parents got home from the city, and so we hung out, ate lunch, and did what all bears do on a sunny day - lay around in the sun. I would say it was a particularly excellent day. My patches of sunburn don't quite agree, but they're sort of fun suckers anyway. 

So what adventures do we have to look forward to tomorrow? Kayaking, napping, and possibly, if you're very lucky, an impromptu dance party.

Just a quick note on the pictures for today - no, there is no unity in style or border. And I'm pretty okay with that. Spontaneity, you know.