Elizabeth’s Journal

My Peaceful Garden

I just spent 1-1/2 hours out on my deck, most of it reading this week’s issue of The New Yorker while indulging in a glass of Italian wine (beverage bonnet appropriately in use, of course). I have two different oil lamps that burn citronella fuel and three lanterns that hold candles—all were lit and placed around the entire back garden. It was pretty windy and a very pleasant temperature, and the sound of the wind rustling through the leaves of our neighbor’s Bradford pear tree and our red oak and peach tree was very, very relaxing and soothing. For a while the song of a cicada or two reverberated through the night, but after a while it (they) gave up and went to bed.

I thought how nice it would be to have my family there sharing it with me, then I realized that if you were all there, it would be way too noisy to hear the cicada, much less the wind in the leaves. So I changed my wish to hoping that we get some visitors soon—in small quantites—that I can share this with—before it gets too hot!