Wowie, it’s cold again this morning. It’s officially summer finally, but I don’t feel it in my bones. I have my body wrapped up in long pants, thick wool socks, and a wool blanket. I’m wearing a sweatshirt and my shoulders are also wrapped in a small lap blanket made for me by my sister-in-law, Diana. It was 66 degrees F when I checked last, but I’m sure it’s warmer now. The sun is actually shining, although the wind is blowing and they are expecting the wind to bring in thunderstorms for two full days.

I am not very good at being outdoors for any length of time. The gardening bug has been good for me this year, because at least I get outside to pull weeds or water, for 20 minutes to an hour each day. Typically I spend my outdoor moments on the porch in my hammock. However, this year is not typical at all. We have had so much rain that we have had large numbers of mosquitos even in our yard which is usually bug-free until dark. I got one long day and one short moment in the hammock this year before the rains arrived, and I’m very sad about that loss.

However, I’m heading into a few weeks here where I’ll be outside a bit more than my comfort level. The Charlotte Bluegrass Festival is this week, people are already camping down there (for a lot of folks, they drive in from another state and they stay over a week). We will probably go down just to jam with our friends one night, but that place is a mosquito haven on a good year. I am not looking forward to that part of it. I will enjoy the singing and the tunes, though.

Then Brian’s family is camping together for over a week. This is something they do every year and they really look forward to it. I look forward to seeing the folks who come in from out of state, but I will never understand this thing we in this society call “camping.”

I never camped as a kid, except a few times in tents with Girl Scouts which always ended in rain. I did like church camp as an adolescent, but we had cabins and so we had a good roof over our heads most of the time. But this thing we call camping where lots of people have these big metal boxes they call RVs, or these little fabric bubbles we call tents, and then they all go to the same place and cram a zillion people in two square feet of space, and call it getting away… well, my idea of getting away does not involve having a bunch of people I have never met, within listening range… especially if they have had too many Budweisers.

I just don’t tune out conversations well at all, camping or elsewhere. That’s one reason I don’t do well in restaurants with TV sets going, and why I prefer tea with one friend to a party with a zillion people all at once. At Bloomiefest I remember one time I was sitting between two conversations and it was painful, because my brain was trying to pay attention to both at the same time. The other night I had dinner alone at a restaurant and the table next to me was talking about reality TV and maggots and worms… in a restaurant! It was very hard to tune that out. Thank goodness the conversation did not happen when I was actively trying to eat my meal. I still fail to understand why eating worms when you don’t want to, has anything to do with reality.

Another difficult outdoor thing… you get dirty camping (I don’t like dirt on my hands or feet, at all) and you usually get wet… it’s sometimes really hot and sometimes really cold, and then you get smoke in your eyes from trying to get warm at the fire. Plus you get bit by bugs, and perhaps get a sunburn. Nope, not my idea of fun at all. I prefer my porch… at least, when there are no mosquitos.

We will not go camping very long, maybe overnight, maybe once or we might return for a second overnight. Last year I went for one overnight… Brian stayed longer. It was cold and rainy and I got an allergy headache. I was no fun to anyone at all! I am having better luck with allergies this year, at least.

It’s a big deal to see the family members who come in from out of town, though. I can’t wait to see them. So I will do my best to pray for good weather and a good attitude.

I can see I need to adjust to the out-of-doors more. I will probably be in the July 3 parade in Lansing with the Habibi Dancers, and I will be at the Michigan Fiber Festival in Allegan this year again (though not in my tiny tent this time). And then there is Renaissance Festival, where the Habibis dance several times a summer but I tend to only be able to make one performance a year.

So somehow the universe is telling me to get a grip and make friends with rain and dirt. We’ll see how I do!

I do like the dirt in my gardens, and that is a new development. Today’s picture is the front garden by the porch. This area is almost all shade, all day long. We planted the hostas a couple of years ago when we built the porch (there used to be very old spindly bridal wreath bushes there). All the hostas but one have thrived, we lost one last winter somehow. There are also purple-leaf coral bells in there, and one lonely lily of the valley (we planted at least a dozen a few years back and this year one popped up). Oh, and you can see we have another young climbing rose on the downspout in the foreground, which will no doubt take over in a year or two. It is a low-maintenance garden and very lush and pretty from the sidewalk. I’m pleased with how it looks.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 23rd, 2004 at 12:21 pmand is filed under Relationships. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.