A Hammock Kind of Day

When I heard the weather forecast for Saturday--80 and sunny--I knew I just wanted to hang out at home and relax.  Anyone who knows me knows that I'm not a very good relaxer--I like to have outings and projects planned for most of my free time. But our college had just held a huge event on Friday night, months in the planning, and my two colleagues and I had spent the past few weeks creating slide shows, posters, banners, and signs for the event--not to mention that I had speeches and my usual list of stories to write. I didn't go to the event, but on Friday night I made the 3-hour round trip to pick my daughter, Christine, up at the airport after her 4-month stay in New Zealand.

So I knew I wanted a break on Saturday, but I had forgotten that we had recently bought one of the key ingredients for the perfect relaxing afternon--a hammock. We ordered it from L.L. Bean when the weather was beautiful in March and then proceeded to forget about it when April and May turned cold and damp on the East Coast.

Of course even a brand-new hammock translates into a project because it needs to be hung up. And once we opened the box and laid the hammock out, we discovered that we were a few links short of being able to stretch the chain so it could be hung between our deck and a cedar tree in the yard. The ever-willing Doug took off for Home Depot to purchase chain, while I got out some shears to trim the cedar tree. Christine was her usual helpful self directing me where to make the next cuts from the comfort of her deck chair.

We got the hammock hung, and I grabbed some pillows from the linen closet.

I spent half the afternoon in that hammock.  Bliss....

I did do a little bit of "reading," but reading in this case meant just looking at pictures in one of my favorite books:

The best thing about a hammock is that it's the perfect place to do absolutely nothing--like doze off when your eyes get tired from "reading."

You also get a different view of the world from a hammock. When you look up, you can see that river birch, with its smooth white trunk exposed where the papery bark has peeled back. Or you can see those tiny purple flowers in the grass that you hardly notice when you're sitting up on the deck:

But when the sun moved around to where I was in complete shade late in the afternoon, I realized I need one more thing to really enjoy that hammock: a soft, old chenille bedspread to wrap around myself.

A nice pale yellow would be perfect. Or maybe white with a green and yellow design.

Perfect--now, I have another item on my wish list when I go on my next junk outing.  Probably next weekend, when I'm not feeling so lazy.