Sitting Places

Your typical gardener works like a slave to create beautiful sitting places, and then never sits down to enjoy them--choosing instead to pick weeds, tweak plants--anything but sit, relax, and experience.

I am a typical gardener. Lovely places to sit, but I sit just long enough to notice something needs doing and jump up to do it.

I  like the patio in the morning just before sunrise.  It's cool, the sound of the water splashing into the pond is soothing,  and the morning sun comes up to light Cypress and roses from behind, imparting to them for a few moments, golden halos.

This is where I sit the most.  I feed the koi, and watch them swim around.  So peaceful.  Anxiety floats away with the swing of a koi's tail. 




Waiting for the dogs to complete their Visit To The Lawn, I sit here.  Sometimes I go through junk mail, sometimes I watch the moon rise.


The best place for bird and lizard watching is in back.  This bit of the garden is tucked away down the slope behind the house.   It's best in the winter when the sun is not too hot.  The rose I planted to cover and shade the pergola has not done the job, and the neighbor's air conditioning machine, which runs 24/7 in summer is noisy.  They finally replaced their clanking old unit, and the new one is much quieter, but I still hear a hum. 
The birds are wonderful.  One early morning I looked up and a Barn Owl was looking back down at me.  Hawks, towhees, hummers, finches, crows, while the lizards scurry about and bees buzz in the alyssum.  It's my wild place.



Another shady spot to have some lunch or an open-air dinner, but rarely is it used.  Our loss.



I sit on the path here every once in a while. The shade is deep, the place is cool, there are roses within reach and the neighbor's monster Bougainvillea to gaze up at. 
 A chair is not always necessary.  Shade is enough.  






Now after looking  over what I have written, perhaps I sit in the garden more than I think I do.  I'd better jump up and weed more.