For years I’ve dreamed of getting a hammock and putting it in my backyard under the shade of the giant Mulberry tree. Dreamt of snoozing on the hammock, in a dreamy state. I finally made it all happen and even in the heat I tucked myself into the hammock under the tree.
I imagined it to become a place where I could forget the political hell that’s going on in our country. A place where I could concentrate on the butterflies and the birds and not political parties.
Perhaps my kitties would also like napping there with me. They don’t give a hairball who is running for president. My youngest kitty figured out how to jump up onto the hammock and get the attention she loves. Sox, the elder, also figured out how to jump up and take his favorite place, on my chest, a whisker from my face. I swear if I opened my mouth, he’d climb in!
The hammock would be my no-phone zone, providing a place away from the screen. I’ve been weaning myself away from Facebook and enjoying Instagram more. I see my daughter’s posts there on the Nike Olympics project she’s been heading for a year. Amazing what my adult child can do (says this proud mama). But not while in the no-phone zone!
Depending on which direction I’ll lie, I could either look up into the Mulberry canopy or at the green of my veggie garden. My poor garden is shrouded in too much shade from the nearby oak trees. The zucchini plants are blooming but not fruiting. There’s only male flowers on the plants and no female flowers, hence no pollination happening. My neighbor has been dropping off plenty of her produce so I’m not losing out, but I am jealous as hell of her sunny garden areas. My basil plants are doing well and I’ve eaten handfuls of green beans. I did have four leaves of Romaine lettuce for a micro-mini salad. Hollyhock seeds that I gathered while walking the neighborhood have sprouted. The Swiss Chard seeds have also sprouted and with fingers crossed, they might just grow crazy like they have in past years. Next year I’ll get on the planting earlier. This year the nasty case of bronchitis got in the way of everything.
Perhaps a visit to the library would provide fodder for hammock reading. Or I could reread books I have on hand. Bad memory makes rereads possible. I recently read an entire book thinking it was the first read until I got to the last scene where I realized I had read it before. I can also watch movies twice. One benefit of a faulty memory.
So with all these dreams for my new hammock, I got in/up/on it and relaxed into it. After an hour it was time to get up. Sounds easy, right? Well, it wasn’t. My butt was so close to the ground that my legs weren’t strong enough to support my weight to rise up and stand. I was stuck. Fortunately the friend who helped me put the hammock together was still here and she gave me her two hands and pulled me to my feet.
What’s a girl to do?…I’m going to have to figure out how to get up from the hammock by myself. Do squats daily? I’ve thought of putting a small rug next to the hammock and rolling down onto it and then get up like I do when I’m in my house on the floor. Or put a chair next to the hammock and use that as leverage. But I won’t do anything until my friend comes over again to help me figure out a system. Gads! Who knew!
Lucy Llewellyn Byard is currently a columnist for the Record-Bee. To contact her, email lucywgtd@gmail.com
