Like Joyce’s Wet Bed

Early this sultry morning, before setting off to meet her sisters for lunch, Jackie carried out necessary garden irrigation which I continued after enjoying the lunch she had left prepared for me. After giving pots a fresh-water- and myself a sudorific-drenching I proceeded to a little dead heading that I had failed to ignore.

Aaron, working at Mistletoe Cottage, dropped in for a chat.

Later, my clammy shirt now cold, like James Joyce’s wet bed sheet (“When you wet the bed first it is warm then it gets cold.” – ‘A Portrait of The Artist as a Young Man” ),

I wandered around with my camera.

The random photographic results are all labelled in the gallery that can be accessed by clicking on any image each of which may be enlarged in the usual manner.

This evening we completed the watering and I cut off a few more heads before dining on spicy pepperoni pizza and plentiful fresh salad with which Jackie drank Hoegaarden and I drank more of the Carles.

72 comments

  1. I have thoroughly enjoyed a tour of your fabulous garden in all its flourishing glory, Derrick. The quote reminded me how surprised I was to understand Joyce’s meaning when I first read it in English. The Russian translation was not adequate to the idiom, which made me wonder what else I have missed in world literature throughout the years.

  2. I knew you would make up for no pictures yesterday with a plethora of beautiful images today – and you did not disappoint!! I am so impressed. Wow!! Each image is more beautiful than the one before… each is worthy of a magazine presentation. Have you considered writing an article for “House and Garden” and submitting some of your favorite images? You should!

  3. Oh! your title ignited all kinds of images in my head. I couldn’t wait to hear you explain it.
    And I’m glad your wet/clammy shirt was not because of menopause! 😉 HA! Just teasin’ you! 😀

    Please continue to be careful in the hot humid weather.

    Speaking of wet beds…I visited a museum that showed photos and told stories of pioneers (in the late 1800’s-early 1900’s) dipping bed linens in water to cover themselves with…they slept outdoors on hot nights. Inside the houses the temperature was hotter than outside the houses.

    So glad Jackie got to spend some time with her sisters! 🙂

    Love the individual flower photos you show and, also, love seeing the garden photos…your garden is full, lush, vibrant, bursting with colour and life! 🙂
    HUGS!!! 🙂

  4. I am not often sorry for people who have warmer summer weather than us (almost everyone else in the world) but it does seem that it is unpleasantly hot down south at the moment. You have my sympathy.

  5. Perspiration does work for cooling us off, if we can stand being drenched. Your photos have a soft luster which I find comfortable and easy on the eye.

  6. I am continually amazed that the garden I saw in the first week in February has bloomed so magnificently. I knew it had potential but never so much.

  7. That first shot is especially wonderful, Derrick. I can’t believe how your garden looks like a different garden every time you photograph it!

  8. The garden really is stunning. Sounds like you had another sweltering hot day. At the moment the temperature up here is just about right for me.

  9. You totally dragged me in with the title of this post. You are naughty, but we like you. 🙂 (What was the show with that line?)

  10. Careful Derrick, talk of covens often leads to reprisals. The garden looks wonderful, you have added a word to my vocabulary (sudorific) and reminded me of Mandy in the Dick Emery Show – catchphrase “Ooo you are awful…”

  11. Beautiful garden views, Derrick! I’ve been having some trouble getting your posts to show up in my daily emails. I’m not sure why I would randomly stop getting them and curious if you did anything to your blog settings recently? I tried following you again, but it hasn’t seemed to make a difference. Perhaps it’s a technical glitch that will correct itself.

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