Amelia: Garden Story

Sitting at the table under the tree canopy, a book in one hand, the other hand mindlessly rubbing your temple, you lose track of time. Splotches of light filtered through the branches above move slowly opposite the sun path, while the day merges into evening.

The light becomes gentler, more tired, almost horizontal.

Around you two full walls, one half wall, a tree for a roof, and a balcony: your private outdoors.Noises come and go, the chirping birds, the passing cars, people chatting while walking their dogs, the syncopated rhythm of joggers, the soft rubbery noise of bicycle wheels.

The words on the page start fading as the evening shadow descends into night, the contours are less precise, the contrast becomes nonexistent. Your cat comes around rubbing against your leg to remind you of dinner. The kids go in and out of the house abruptly, slamming doors,  running down stairs and giggling plenty.  Night flowering plants release their fragrance in the warmth of the day’s end, and as light becomes more scarce, the sounds and scents intensify. The cat settles down in your lap, purring.

Eerie little blue solar powered garden lights dot the darkened contours of the plant masses, and you guess more than you see the familiar garden path, the lilac bush, the archway above the gate. White flowers look like reversed shadows in the headlights of passing cars. The heavy summer night air, thick with humid fragrance, slowly cools down into a breeze.