On Summering

I’ve noticed a change.

I am spending more time in my hammock under the dappled shade: if I can, I’m taking it

A read and a nap.

Actual heaven.

“And I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, 'If this isn't nice, I don't know what is.”

― Kurt Vonnegut Jr., A Man Without a Country

This quote is a family motto, repeated as often as possible.

Noticing Happiness in simple moments.

During Golden hour.

While picking a tomato, eating it warm from the plant, juice dribbling down over my chin onto my hands.

A first sip of a cold beer on a warm evening at the end of the day.

The smell of the flowering basil at Forty Hall on Saturday.

Music from a concert drifting over the trees.

I’m grasping at these moments. I’m aware the nights are drawing in quick. It’s getting too dark to cut flowers by 8.30pm when it was 10pm, sixty days ago. Morning follows the same, darkness at 5.30am.

Yet air still feels warm on my skin. It’s not autumn yet. Not for another four weeks or so, according to my measure of seasons (and when it’s still ‘shorts’ weather.

I consciously aware of the transition.

Lately, I’ve been listening to a lot of Marie Hill’s Podcasts and reading her book ‘Period Power’.  You don’t need a womb to benefit; those podcasts are useful for any genders alike.  I first discovered her on the fantastic series 28ish Days Later on the BBC (listen especially to the one on hormones; studies on men’s daily fluctuations was a real eye opener), she talks beautifully about ‘winter’ as a season.

I wrote about the similarities of plants and my wintering attitudes -

Shrubs and trees when planted bare root or root balled in the autumn and winter settle in far better now than when moved in warmer months. Allowed to relocate, resettle into the soil. Stretch and acquainting with surroundings.

In her book, Hill writes that many women can be more ‘at home’ in the winter and summer parts of their cycle (as opposed to spring or autum). I reflected on that in my wintering state; so much that I now don’t bother trying to do too much on long dark evenings, instead, I embrace them, making the most of the hibernation’s property to preserve myself.

Yet, in moment of reflection, I only realised this week that I need to rest more in the summer too.

Summering means to ‘stay in one place for the season of summer’

I don’t think it is a location but a state of being.

Summering is a state of mind.

I know that very hot days tire me. Rather than full of energy in these months, I am best waking very early and working then, and enjoying a relaxed evenings. I used to work from dawn to dusk, late into the summer nights. The gardens could do with me giving them a little more attention but with a huge amount of going on for our family this year, I lack the capacity to do so. Instead I am embracing rest as a radical act and I don’t feel guilty. I have to look after myself and I now know how.

Ironically, I’ve noticed with the lengthening nights, that I am feeling the energy returning.

Hill advocates to take note of your cycle, really noticing how you feel at any time.

In my reflection, I was thinking on what was going on and what was different this year.

Right now, in this ‘chapter’ of my life, winter and summer are times to reflect, rest, plan, renew; whereas Spring and Autumn are periods where I can push hard.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m still working hard - teaching on and off the plots, bucket’s leaving the gardens with stems sloshing in water, preparing for events being flowered and caboodles collected.

But like the biodynamic cycle I grow to, (scheduling jobs as to whether water is up high in the stems for harvesting or low in the soil for lifting plants and moving depending on whether the moon is waxing or waning) there is a pendulum swing between the two ‘seasons’ of the moon. Yin and yang; rest and restore, revive the mind, the soul then push towards growth and physical effort. This dualism is all about us. I didn’t notice it before, never felt it on the scale of the year.

Right now, I want long drinks, loungers, bare feet, laughing children, hot sweaty skin and generous bowls of salad.

I’d love one those indulging place, like an Indian garden tents with tassels brought and installed specifically for the 8-12 weeks of summer. A home for summer.

And yet there is a shift in the air. I feel more urgency in my attitude. I want to move again. Sow seeds for next year, cut plants back, save seeds, order the plants, review and look forward again rather than sit and rest.

The year is transitioning and so must I.