Sunday, September 20, 2009

A pleasant, lazy weekend

Jennifer I am taking an online class this term about the life of Linnaeus. It occurred to me suddenly last week that I hadn't done any work yet, and it is already three weeks into the term, so I decided that this weekend would be devoted entirely to catching up with the reading, a good task for what I had thought would be a rainy, coolish couple of days.

Of the course the weather was gorgeous.



Well, no help for it, I still had to do the reading, so off I went on Saturday to the large lawn near our place, walking just a few steps further than I usually do, and found a nice nook in a rock that I had never noticed before, which looks as if it were made specifically for someone to sit and read in. I sat and read all afternoon in the sunshine, while people strolled around on the path behind me, walking their children or dogs or both, and a couple of young fellows fooled around with a soccer ball by the goals on the lawn. Someone went by on horseback once, and every now and then one of the sheep at the soldier's holt would bah-ah-ah, probably begging for sugary snacks from visitors. It was so very pleasant that I went back to do the same thing today. Happily the nook was unoccupied... again, the people strolled, the dogs barked, the horses whinnied, and I held still for long enough that a butterfly landed on my ankle and stayed for a time. What a very lovely situation, for reading about a botanist who believed that the best happiness is to be found outside:

Viewing nature gives a taste of the celestial bliss, a constant delight of the soul and the beginning of the complete revitalization that is the peak of human happiness.


1 comment:

  1. Sounds soooo lovely. Quite unfair: I *never* see sheep on my walks. I only continue to encounter skunks on my morning runs...

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