Leave yourself a present

Life tends to be so complex, sometimes the simple pleasures are the best.

When we got to our booth at the Colorado Renaissance Festival, (#113 Common Threads in case you want to look us up during the festival) there was the usual flurry of checking the booth over for winter damage and assessing what we had left behind in the way of dishes, cooking appliances, clothing and display items.

The winter damage was not bad - one board in the ceiling rotted out. Courtesy of an afternoon rain storm, we also found that the roof was back to leaking like a sieve. Douglas County has been getting an over abundance of rain this year. The gardens in front of our castle look great, the lavender is just starting, but the rose is lush and the curly mint is busting out of its pots. The afternoon rain storms are a nice refreshing boon to business at the festival, so I hope they keep up.

The booth was also cleaner and more organized than we had left it. The Larkspur school district borrows our booth at Halloween to do a spook house. I guess they raise about $20,000 for special projects with it. They borrow our castle and a few other booths here at the Renaissance Festival. In years past, they have not cleaned up very well, but this year they did an awesome job. Other than a few splashes of fake blood on the floor, a box of Halloween candy on the counter and storage items being organized more neatly than we left them, we wouldn't have known they were here.

We found we had left ourselves a full compliment of dishes and the important appliances - microwave, coffee pot and fridge in working order. There were a few items of clothing, most of them belonging to the teens. I also found toothpaste and other toiletries and a bag of bedding on the shelf.

So we began unpacking, just a bit, bringing in items we could fit in between the drips. Our priorities suddenly changed from fixing the porch and painting to FIXING the roof - a more expensive project than we had planned on...

But for the evening, we just wanted to settle down, find a dry spot for our bed, walk the dogs and maybe watch an episode of Quantum Leap, which Shawn had check out at the library. It had been a long few days, it was cold, and we were tired. In fairness, my parents had invited us to come back there, it is only 40 minutes away and warm and dry. But we wanted to be home - humble as our castle may be.

After we situated our bed and set up electricity, which was a bit of a challenge because our long extension cord had gone walk-about, I pulled down the bag of bedding and found the most wonderful surprise. I had left myself an incredible present.

When I opened the bag, the scent of fresh lavender wafted out. I pulled out the sheets and discovered with delight that I had packed clean sheets with fresh dried lavender blossoms from the castle herb garden. I shook out the sheets and suddenly the whole booth was rain fresh and flower scented. I layered up the bed with sheets and quilts, the electric blanket and my down comforter. The crowning glory was the pillows - clean cases over soft puffy fresh pillows, with a deep relaxing lavender scent. All night long I snuggled in my warm fresh nest and basked in relaxing lavender and the delight that I had left myself such a wonderful present.

Do something nice for yourself, leave yourself a little present somewhere you don't go very often. You'll be surprised at how good it will make you feel.