A good place to dream

I've always loved to float.  My Mom and I often joke that neither of us ever required flotation devices.  We can spend hours bobbing on the lake without 'noodles' or rafts or any other accoutrement. When we are at the lake I will often sit on the boat to read just so I can bob around on the water.  Rocking chairs and gliders and big farmer's porches always appealed to me as well as place to just sit and read and daydream.

But at home I never really had a great place to just sit and read.  When I worked on Federal Street and took the commuter rail daily I devoured books.  Sometimes taking 2 a day with me just in case I finished one on the train.  I was that crazy person you would see walking down the street with their nose buried in a book just looking up long enough to not trip over the odd tree root.  But once I went to culinary school and subsequently started working in kitchens all of my reading has been based exclusively in recipe development, or food research. There are books on my bedside table that have been piling up for years.  I even promised to dive into this tome with a group for summer reading.  This weekend that all changed.
After a month of rain and cold and rain and cold and mizzle and warm, and downpours and cold the skies finally cleared on Friday as I was shopping for supplies for next weeks classes.

Given my SD's eye surgery and the fact that none of us would be heading to Maine for the 1st time in 22 years for the 4th, I had a little seed in the back of my mind and I knew on the way back from my 3rd, yes, 3rd, trip to Ikea in as many weeks I was going to pull off and hit the Dedham plaza.  I walked straight into Lowe's and loaded my cart with a hammock and a frame.

I brought it home, promptly assembled it and realised the frame took up the entire garden and there was no way I was going to stare at it all summer.  I dragged husband from the basement and pulled out the measuring tape.  There were two trees.  Just two that had any chance of making this dream work.
We measured and drills were obtained and more measurements taken and well....here...

I broke it in gently with this reading...

...thus clearing off the top right hand 1/3 of my bedside table. 

Now I think I am ready to tackle the beast..

I had the added bonus of watching not 1 but 2 hummingbirds in the garden as well as a never before seen, in my garden at least, pine siskin.  All in all a rather spectacular weekend with weather to match.  More of this please and I could just be inspired to hit the kitchens.
Off to make dinner, I hope your 4th was just as lovely.

Comments

[pam]

If I had such a lovely spot to read, I'm afraid, I'd never leave!

[Caleb]

I found your food blog going through a few links. Glad I ran into it. Didn’t know that the food blog/recipe community was so big online. I love your posts!

I was wondering if you would like to exchange links. I’ll drop yours on my site and you drop mine on yours. Email at ramendays@yahoo.com or stop by my site and drop a comment. Let me know if you would like to do a link exchange.

Cheers,
Caleb
http://www.ramendays.com

[breadchick]

I love the idea of "floating" on a hammock in the back yard reading and watching the flora and fauna. Sorry you couldn't make it to your beloved Maine but sounds like you found a pretty acceptable replacement for this year.

Now if we could only get rid of this rain...