The summer days are here. I have no desire to go outside between 9 in the morning and 4 in the evening, and it's so humid somedays not at all. A few minutes outdoors and clean crisp clothes become soaked in sweat, and mosquitos bite at any skin exposed in the attempt to be cooler.
On Sunday afternoons such as these I just lay around inside looking at the sun outside, picking up books to read or listening to podcasts. A nap later and it's still hot out. I think of some place cool I could go, but I'm sick of shopping and there aren't any movies I want to see. I could go to the library are walk through the stacks for a while, but the fluorescent lighting in mid-day gets on my nerves. I could visit family but they're probably all reclined in cool dark rooms passing the time in TV/iPhone half-attention. Mostly I wait until evening when I can go for a run and sweat out my ennui.
Even gardening in these days is not so fun - just keeping things alive by watering them every day.
In many ways summer in the South is like winter in the North.
Maybe I should vacation in a milder climate?
A book recommendation: The Cottage Garden and the Old Fashioned Flowers by Roy Genders. I got it cheap used off Amazon, and it was a really nice read. More than just a gardening book, it delves into the history of the flowers, the mythology, and what poets have said. Here's what Publisher's Weekly said: "
ReplyDeleteThis historically resonant compendium romanticizes the vanishing cottage-garden flower. Citing Greek mythology, medieval gardening manuals, Shakespearean tragedy and a 15th century Ave Maria, Genders resurrects the long-neglected plants, tracing their odysseys and uses. A garland of Madonna lilies and red roses was the custom at weddings in Chaucer's age, the scarlet pimpernel was a weather forecaster, and time remembers when the Englishman drank primrose wine, smoked chamomile and kept a peony in his pocket to ward against evil. The book proffers many clever tricks of the gardening trade, such as growing night-scented plants on the western side of a house (so they emit a more concentrated perfume), and reveals the possibilities of thornless roses, miniature conifers sprouting in a sink and outdoor boxes of culinary herbs within arm's reach of the kitchen window."
Thanks for the recommendation, Br. Placidus! It seems like a book I'd love.
DeleteP.S., if I sent you some Madonna lily bulbs, would you try to grow them there? I've never had luck with them here, but they are the flowers of my dreams.
Totally would! Send them my way!
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