“Each day has a color, a smell.”
The day is cloudy dark. Rain is predicted. It is also windy which makes it feel colder than it is. I had to shut the back door. Last night was Gracie busy. She had me up every couple of hours, and we went out at 3:30. I went back to sleep but woke up when I heard her moving around at 8:00, but she readily jumped on the couch with me, and we both slept until 10.
I did all my errands yesterday. I had a route in mind, but the cars in long lines at the lights had me reconsider how to get there from here. I should have realized they’d be lines as this is, after all, a three day weekend, sort of summer’s last hurrah. Today is a stay off the roads day as the weekenders will be driving around looking for something to do.
I can smell wood burning again. The smell has again triggered memories. I remember overnights at Camp Aleska, the Girl Scout camp in the town where I grew up. The camp was up a dirt road across from the zoo and was surrounded by tall pine trees. Paths were behind the camp and led all through the woods. There was one big room in the camp with a huge fireplace. My favorite part of the overnight was falling asleep as the fire waned and the embers glowed in the dark. I have mentioned mornings in Ghana several times. The air smelled of wood fires as breakfast was cooked over wood charcoal. In the market, huge bags of charcoal were for sale. In some villages tree trunks were slowly burned into charcoal and bags of it were for sale on the sides of the road. Even the irons were filled with wood charcoal.
At night, aunties, older women, sitting along the sides of the main road in Bolga cooked food over wood charcoal and sold it. I remember the smell in the air was a combination of the wood charcoal burning and food cooking at my nighttime snack stops. That was the first time I ever tasted grilled corn and deep fried plantain and yam chips. Guinea fowl was rare, but I always bought it if I found it. I remember the spots of light from the lit lanterns up and down the street and the blazing embers under metal bowls filled with groundnut oil where the food cooked.
I am ever so thankful for having served in Ghana and for the memories still strong and vibrant.
Explore posts in the same categories: MusingsTags: burning, cloudy, cool, errands, Ghana, girl scout, grilled corn, long weekend, night, one trees, peanut oil, rain, tourists, windy, wood burning, wood charcoal, woods
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keepthecoffeecoming.blog 
October 8, 2017 at 1:38 pm
I actually had the first fire in my stove for the season today, well I had it twice because I put fire on some paper garbage just too see what way the smoke would go, if it had turned into my kitchen it is so much easier to put it out if it’s just paper 🙂
It became so hot inside that I had to have the kitchen door open for a while otherwise we all would have boiled 🙂
I do remember the camp fires we had when I was in the scouts. I never really liked it because the side towards the fire was nasty hot and the side away from it chilling cold 🙂 🙂 I’ve always preferd indoors fires in stoves 🙂
Rather chilly here today and mostly it was cloudy and rainy but every now anad again we had short moments with sunshine.
I’ve just boiled lots of rice porridge so I’ll have some now and the rest as breakfast tomorrow 🙂
Have a great day!
Christer.
October 8, 2017 at 4:29 pm
Christer,
I had to turn the heat on to warm the house a couple of mornings, but then I turned it off. I can’t stand winter sneaking in this early.
I had both doors and a window open, and I closed them when it started to rain, but it is getting warm in here so I may have to open the back door.
That is surely true about one side of the body hot while the other was cold when in front of a fire. I usually have a blanket across my shoulders outside.
I haven’t ever had rice porridge.
Have a great evening!
October 8, 2017 at 3:35 pm
Although I was a Boy Scout I hated camping. To me motel 6 is roughing it. 🙂 I disliked sleeping on the ground in a sleeping bag, eating food cooked over an open fire never appealed to me. It’s hard to do gourmet cooking over an open fire. Somehow I remembered the taste of grit in my scrambled eggs from eating breakfast on a Boy Scout camp out. I like the great outdoors as viewed from the great indoors. There’s nothing like having indoor plumbing and having central air and heat.
You were lucky to have been sent to Ghana rather than being sent to Vietnam.
A beautiful clear sky with warm temperatures. A high in the low 90s.
October 8, 2017 at 4:35 pm
Bob,
I liked camping and I thought we didn’t do it often enough. I had an air mattress under my sleeping bag. We had great food cooked over the fire. It didn’t ever taste of grit. You guys must have had bad cooks.
I think as a kid, I didn’t need the comforts I now need. It was exciting to sleep outside.
We lived rather simply in Ghana. We couldn’t get most vegetables. we bought chickens live, had to have clothes made as there were no clothing stores, we stored extra water for when was none, and it took 3-4 hours to go 100 miles on a good road. 35 miles on a bad road took abhor and a half.
It just stopped raining.