Sunday, October 14, 2012

Home again, home again Jiggity Jig


Well, a lot has happened since my last post.  It has been nearly 3 full months and here I am back in Canada.  I am planning on blogging about some of the fantastic things we did in Italy in July and August, but today I am discussing being home.


At the end of July we decided it was time to come to a close on our Italian adventure and to return to Canada.  Italy had always been an open ended year for us, and if the opportunity and desire to stay had arisen we would have followed that path.  But it didn't so we said our goodbyes, crammed in as much sight seeing and travel as we could and boarded a plane.  We were sad to say goodbye to not only Italy but to all the wonderful friends we had made, but we were excited to reconnect with our friends and community here.

We have been home nearly a month and we are all settling back nicely into a routine.  I am still unpacking boxes and trying to locate items that I am pretty sure I hadn't sold off in the pre-Italian yard sales.  The children are all settling into old and new activities and are thrilled to be reunited with friends.
We still have no pictures on the walls and many of the windows are in need of curtains, but already it feels like home.  Funny enough it felt like home the moment we arrive back in the city.  It was like slipping into your favourite cashmere sweater.  Familiar and warm and all embracing.


I love to travel and I love to see and learn new things.  I love the warmer weather that has been offered to me not only in Italy but also when we were in Australia.  I loved being a foreigner on the journeys we have taken.  I have always had positive experiences with travel, but there is just something about coming back to the place that deep down inside your heart is home.  That inexplicable quality of the place where you know and it knows you,  where you hold a history with friends and family, people know you, like really know you, and still like you.


We were greeted by a beautiful late summer with warm sunny days resplendent  in the colours of autumn.   I saw beautiful sunrises that began days where the colour of the sky was deep blue and free of even a single cloud.  The evenings are crisp and now we have had rain, the streets are littered with golden leaves and I am yearning to begin new knitting projects.  And as the weather grows colder and we head towards Winter, by far my least favourite season, I am surrounded by the warmth of friends and family and what can only be described as home.  And I think often of Dorothy and she is right 'there is no place like home'.