It is a pleasure to be outside today working in the yard. It is still hot; it is summer after all and heat is to be expected; but the oppressive humidity seems to have abated a bit and one no longer walks out the door to be blasted by the force of the wet soggy heat, as if one has walked into a tiny space surrounding an over-vigorous hot-tub, steam pouring out, blasting body to a state of exhaustion so dense and wet that all one can do is sit and loll about.
A hot summer day can be a glorious thing. Oh yes, I might prefer to dig on a cooler day, but cooler days have been few and far between this summer and I see none on the horizon. This day, hot but dry with a bit of a breeze, seems like the epitome of summer and there is much summer work to be done. Nature’s overabundant growth must be beaten back and tamed, forced to my bidding. There are gardens-in-waiting to be cleared, rose bushes to be moved before the construction crews resume their labors, new beds to be built.
Oh it shall not all be done today. Probably only a small start shall be accomplished, but I must seize what opportunity arises. I had planned to go to the gym and sew today, but if I go to the gym early I will not work in the yard later, I will laze about; and if I work in the yard now I will undoubtedly be to tired to push the weights later today, but gardening is its own form of work and I shall be happy to employ those muscles as well. The beds that have needed water have been hosed down, The vegetable garden will be weeded next. Then I shall have to tackle clearing a new space for the huge climbing rose that still abides at the corner of the once-pool-deck, before that area is flattened and rebuilt. I am glad I let it stay, I have enjoyed seeing its abundant roses out the living room window all summer, but now that construction is about to resume, I can no longer delay and must resign myself to fighting the large thorny thing. It is my own fate, my own decision that brought me here.
And now, this brief break for water and a cool-down has been spent and it is outdoors to the blue skies and the glorious sunshine (even though I am hidden under long sleeves and a big hat) bending mother nature to my will.