You know you’re a little odd when your husband is excited to show you the flashlights he bought at the store. The reason the flashlights are so important is that you and he hunt snails in the garden at night. The previous flashlights have died. So you need new ones and the ones he found are dandies. They focus the beam of light, brighten and pulse. Pretty cool! You even go outside to check out how well they work in the garden.
I will admit that it was pretty cool to take a brief walk through our late fall garden at night with super awesome flashlights. We didn’t find any snails, just a few baby slugs. However, we did get to see the Pineapple Salvia in full bloom. Why does it take this plant so long to bloom? Why is it finally glorious in November, in spite of the definite frost we had a few weeks ago? We live in a very temperate microclimate and our garden is so heavily planted that we have an amazing amount of “non-hardy” plants that survive the winter and thrive.
My husband and I have our little routines and rituals. Also, we tend to grasp on to things that give us pleasure and we believe we will make them a ritual, so we buy all the necessary items to complete the ritual only to find that a year later we are not using those items at all. You who are my age should remember The Cosby Show’s episode with the cupboard of abandoned electronic appliances. That happens all the time with us. Appliances and all sorts of other things included. The appliance graveyard includes a bread machine and a pasta maker. Probably 1-2 juicers, too, although I think we have thrown 1 out already.
The item that we don’t use that makes me the most sad is our Chinese tea pot and cups. Each time we go to the Chinese garden in Portland, we have tea. It is so lovely to sit and look out over the garden and enjoy tea. Tea has been my caffeinated drink of choice since childhood. That Mitch wanted to deepen our bond through the sharing of tea is super romantic. He makes me tea every morning. He has researched the perfect way to make tea and he makes sure the temperature is perfect and the tea steeps for the optimal length of time. We buy loose leaf tea from a local, family-owned business. It is all quite lovely. But after enjoying the Chinese Garden, we purchased an iron tea pot, a clay steeping cup and two Chinese tea cups. The idea was that we would sit in the garden and enjoy a relaxing tea time. This actually happened two or three times. Since then the tea service has sat idle, despite the fact that we again visited the garden in September of this year. Oh well, it’s the thought that counts, right?
So back to the flashlight purchase. Don’t get me wrong, like any woman ever born, I appreciate the well timed delivery of flowers, any type of jewelry, a dinner out and definitely any form of chocolate! Just knowing that my husband was thinking about me (and not feeling guilty) gives me great joy. But I will have to say, that I got pretty excited about the new flashlights! Call me odd, I’m okay with that.
What would Jane Austen Grow? 