Rambling On a Warm Night

It seems the heat is here to stay. Soon we will break down and turn on the air conditioners. No doubt soon as the heat makes me a big grumpy. I was out watering the rose bushes and the garden tonight and had 4 mosquitoes biting me on just one leg. Guess wearing shorts is hazardous right now. My hair was a mass of frizz and piled on top of my head looking much like a bowl of brown fuzz haphazardly tossed on me. Mud here and there on my legs. Its a wonder someone didn't stop by unexpected and make me want to run for cover. The gladiolas are in bloom and the peonies look just a couple days away from showing off their glory. Soapwort is in bloom too, like overgrown carnations. Resisted the temptation to dig up some of my Fo Ti. Its a great root, looking like a human body and of course said to restore health like other human looking roots do. I will let it stay till fall this year and then harvest it. Wandering around this land of ours is a good thing. Makes you feel connected to it, part of it. You can make the connection to its value as you see things growing that will sustain us, nourish us and delight our taste buds. Cantaloupe is in full bloom. Can't wait for the round, sweet fruit, pulled from the vines, chilled and savored.
There is a collection of old metal chairs out back. We love them and hate them all at the same time. We paint them and they peel. Some years they don't even get painted, this is one of those years as you can tell.
But no matter, these chairs are like old friends and they give me a place to rest in the shade and think about anything I want to. Or not to think and just listen to the birds sing or the wind blow through the trees.
Its kinda nice being able to think or not think. To just sit and do nothing for a time. Helped that I was sipping a Prickly pear cactus slushie thing. Made not thinking easier, maybe that was brain freeze and I didn't realize it.
I think that is what Lin YuTang meant when he wrote...

"If you can spend a perfectly useless afternoon in a perfectly useless manner, you have learned how to live. "