A weekend of relaxed adventure

Girls Day In with Cranford

About two years ago, I started Girls' Day In at our home, The Brambles.  A bunch of my girlfriends come over one Saturday a month (October-May) and we spend the day watching girly movies or BBC miniseries or some such thing, we drink tea and wine, eat the yummiest of foods, chat and relax.
We wear our comfiest clothes, occasionally work on handiwork, and just really enjoy being girls together.
In this over connected, hyper wified world, it's nice to just unplug and relax together with no pressures,

Bailey loves GDI. :)

no expectations and no men.  

Well, except Bailey.  He's a guy, and he's allowed.

Wine and Chocolate Book Club

A few months later, my mom and I got together and started the Wine and Chocolate Book Club.  We gathered a great group of women to read a book and then discuss it (and other things) while drinking wine and eating chocolates and other goodies.  We meet about every six weeks, moving from home to home and from book to book.  It's been a wonderful way to connect with a variety of women with a wide range of reading tastes.   The hostess of the meeting picks the book, and we've read every sort  from the nicest of romances to the strangest of true stories, adventures, tragedies, humor, magic, contemporary and classic.

Camp.  That's all, just Camp.  

So, a few months ago I thought it would be a great idea to get these two groups of fabulous women together in some remote spot and just relax.  I spoke to Mom, and she offered up her Adirondack camp, and voila!  The 1st Annual Girls Weekend Away was born.  And it was beyond even my wildest imaginings.

The weather was perfect, and the fall foliage was just nearing peak.  We had warm days and cool evenings, clear mornings and lots of sunshine for reading and relaxing on the beach.

At the base of Whiteface Mountain

We slowly trickled in and settled in for a lovely fall weekend of girl time.  In total there were 13 of us, a very lucky number.  We ranged in age and experience from just starting out to well established womanhood.  Going in to the weekend we were friends, acquaintances and family members, and I hope we left just a little closer to each other than when we started.  We ate and drank, sang and played music, swam and kayaked, climbed mountains (well, sort of) and leaf peeped.

Kayak selfie photobomb!

Lynn waves from the lake.  Brrr!

Sunrise from a kayak
in the middle of Fern Lake

We watched the sunrise from the middle of the lake and from the shore with coffee, chatted around the bonfire and on the beach, enjoyed a lively book discussion, shared dinners and breakfasts, played games and gave each other facials, relaxed and laughed and loved all weekend long.

Red Wine Facials!

There were card readings and star gazings (so many shooting stars!), dragonflies and bumblebees, loons and otters and ducks and geese, marshmallows and chocolate truffles, crock-pots filled with chili and meatballs and mac and cheese, and too many bottles of wine to count.


We spoke of the light and trivial, of our dreams and disappointments, of sadness and of joy.  We told stories and told jokes, and we all learned a new song.  Well, we learned the chorus of a new song, and we all sang it together in the bright sunshine on the shore.

My happiest of happy places

It was a cathartic and rejuvenating weekend at my most happiest of places, and it was the catalyst for me starting to write again.  I hope this is the start of an annual tradition.  There are a few things I am extraordinarily happy to have started, and GDI and the W&C Book Club are at the top of that list.  I think it's important for women to get together, to unplug from the world together; we need to be able to connect with each other with no pressure and no judgement and nothing but freedom to be ourselves.  

We need to be able to share dreams and hopes and tears and laughter and stories and songs.  And chocolate.

Let's never forget the chocolate.

Thanks for listening.