**flashback to the border of Catalonia and Aragon October 2019**
As we’re all house(or van)bound for the next few weeks I thought I’d share some OUTSIDER stories from our travels over the previous year-or-so that were previously paid for content. I’ll start posting these up for free for those who’re looking for something more to read, or just want to engage with the outdoors through online channels (for now at least).
This piece was written in northern Spain last autumn.
Over these years in the van the idea of ceremony keeps returning. This is not something I’m rushing or ploughing ahead with, it’s a concept that is slowly, subtly, but insistently weaving its way into the days of this life. Below is an excerpt, link to full piece here.
“From here I forage: tinder is dry grasses and leaves, pine cones, wildflower fluff; kindling is small twigs, bark, sticks; firewood is larger sticks and logs, if I’m lucky a trunk the size and thickness of my leg will materialise that I will be able to slowly feed into the fire, becoming its heart. A steel and flint would be ideal for sparking, but until I source a good one I use matches. I have a small axe and saw but rarely use them – they are absolutely the last ‘buy it cheap and new’ purchase, but now I have them I’ll have to learn to work within their limitations.
By creating a moving meditation around building the fire I feel connected to the space. A deeper awareness of the shifts in air and the surrounding landscape form as I wander out in circles, in spirals, collecting a large stone in each hand, then returning. This is repeated until enough stone, and then wood, are piled.”
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