Summer Journal

The illustration is from an old Victoria magazine. I was captivated by the image of a woman in a hat and swimsuit languishing in her own backyard on a summer’s day. Even the caption under the picture (you can’t see it here) caught my attention: “Wish you were here!”

I wondered if summer could really be enjoyed at home. Everyone in my environs seemed to be in a mad rush to get to the beaches, the kayak center…the liquor store. Yet here was a woman enjoying her summer afternoon perhaps just beside her kitchen potager or under a tree and with her roses nearby. What a concept! It even looks like she is having tea.

Not long after, I began to hear about staycations and I have since had a few myself because of financial constraints or work commitments and later because of lock-downs. I discovered that being at home during the summer was wonderful and liberating. Gone was the pressure to plan and pack. My vacation started the moment I opened the slider and stepped outside.

I still love the beach, day trips to museums and local concerts but my summer afternoons involve making sun tea in a covered carafe on the patio, reading large stacks of home decor books I grab willy-nilly from the shelves at the public library. When I’m not reading, I’m hanging my sheets on the line to dry in the soft breeze, making lists for dinners, listening to gentle music on my small speaker through the kitchen window… making tuna melts for lunch. I’m walking daily to the mailbox at the end of my long driveway and making other trips to drop off outgoing mail. I feel so virtuous when I pop the little red flag alerting the postman that I have deposited my letters without using the car again.

I’m not much of a gardener but I do have hydrangeas and day lilies and make small bouquets every week. One afternoon, I blocked a newly-knitted shawl to dry and stretch in the sun. I staycation-ed with a friend who came to have wine and cheese as we waited for the golden hour to explode through the trees with majestic rays. Later we had the last of the wine with our bare feet up on the old wooden bench and watched fireflies at the edge of the woods until we heard something howling not too far off in the distance.

This week the cooler temperatures allowed me to take my yoga mat outside for morning stretches. I gave myself an al fresco pedicure and then a neighbor showed up with a piece of her leftover birthday cake. I ate that in my backyard as I listened to the wind chimes agreeably knell above my head. I ended the repast with a restorative nap in my rickety but cushioned outdoor chaise.

The writing of this has turned into my summer journal which I offer as friendly suggestions so that you can tackle the dog days if they are upon you or if you are at your wit’s end with hurried activity and hot summer tension.

And of course, I do indeed wish you were here…

~

If I ever go looking for my heart’s desire again, I won’t look any further than my own backyard. ~ Dorothy Gale, Wizard of Oz