It was a quiet day today. My friend had business to attend to, so spent the morning on the phone to her business partner in Australia. I did a bit of research for her, processed some of my photos, then started reading a book.
The weather was perfect, and I thought that reading in the large hammock strung between two trees on the front lawn would be a good idea. It was — but then it wasn’t. After negotiating getting into the hammock (I haven’t done that for decades!) without tipping myself out, I settled in. I’d been in the hammock less than a minute when the mosquitoes decided that this warm body was too delicious to resist. Despite putting on heaps of ‘natural’ insecticide, the mozzies just swarmed around me. Not biting me, but buzzing around every bit of my face and hands, and the tablet I was holding to read my e-book. They were too annoying and drove me inside within five minutes, where I settled onto a couch on the covered porch away from the mozzies and continued reading.
Hammock time
View of the trees above the hammock
By late morning my friend had finished the call and was mostly finished with her work, so we drove into Burlington for lunch and some shopping. There are some neat little stores on Church St in the Marketplace, and we spent all our time in a few of them. She helped the local economy with her purchases! Oh, I must mention the gorgeous cocktail we had at Ken’s Pizza and Bar place — it was like a very yummy key lime pie thickshake, but with alcohol!
We got back around 5pm, took a swim in Lake Champlain, then headed back to the cottage so she could finish her work. I edited her document for her, then went and got Chinese take-out while she made her last call to Australia about the document that had to be submitted that day.
With the sun staying up until well after 8pm, it’s easy to eat late and by the time you settle down to watch TV, it’s almost time for bed.
Rhonda Bracey: At Random 