Hammocks and Me

When I was in high school, sometime before junior year, I found a hammock in a box. It was faded, but without holes, and I asked my parents if I could set it up between two fruit trees in the front yard (before we lived their, our home had been occupied by Green Peace at some point, and so we had no lawn in either the back or the front, just fruit trees - fig, several apple, crab apple, lemon, orange and tangelo). I found a good spot between, I think, two apple trees in the front yard. My first plan was to put a screw or a nail in to hold up the hammock. After encountering resistance from the tree, I asked my dad how I was supposed to do this. He was a little horrified that I had tried to put something in the tree to hold it, told me that could kill the tree. So he gave me some rope and I figured it out eventually. Then all I had to do was put a little stand next to the hammock, and voila, instant paradise.

Our front yard was surrounded with a tall hedge, so my space was pretty much private, assuming no one came through the gate. I read a lot out there, mostly leisure. I remember reading a Katharine Hepburn bio out there. I also remember talking on the cordless phone to my new boyfriend (and first boyfriend) over Thanksgiving break. He told me about his dog, a Jack Russel terrier, who had chewed through the pipes and flooded the house. They were going to have to take him to a farm (for reals, not put him down) and he was quite devastated. I tried to console him. I never met the dog.

Now - what I wouldn't give for a hammock. I do have my lovely reading chair, which I've mentioned before, but it would be really nice to have someplace that's comfortable where I could read outside. We have a small balcony, and chairs, but they're not lounge-y. And the balcony's not really large enough for a hammock, even for one.

Someday. I'll put having a hammock to lie in again amongst my goals in life, along with being published and going to Australia.