summer
Dear Ciara,
Well, I’m home. After four weeks down south, soaking up the temperate blue and spending days exploring rockpools, I have returned to Tropical Queensland. It is good to be home again, to feel the sweat drip down my forehead and to listen to the buzzing of cicadas. While it was lovely and hot in NSW, it’s such a different type of heat to here, lacking that familiar sticky humidity that moistens my skin. Many of my friends, including you, complain about the humidity, but I just adore it.
While we were away, heavy rains pelted the garden. I’ve come home to an overgrown, wild mess. Forget any other mention of the word “overgrown” in my previous letters; this amount of growth exceeds them all. The back garden bed is a knotted tangle of sweet potato vine and bushy rosellas. Amongst them, two chilli plants struggled to stand tall, arms heavy with fruit, and a lone cosmos, which is somehow still hanging on despite the heat, is full of bright orange flowers. The bed seems to have also become a breeding ground for giant grasshoppers. Every time I brush my hands along the mass of foliage, hundreds of tiny baby grasshoppers dart from my touch. They are green and brown, with large beady eyes that study me with intrigue.
At some point I will have to sort the garden bed out, but for now, I’d like to enjoy the last few days of my holidays before I return to work. Today, the weather is perfect: a hot and heavy sun. Beach weather. I will attempt to persuade The Organist to take me to the beach later, where I can laze about under the sea hibiscus and watch honeyeaters and cicadas flitting between the leaves. I'm currently reading Virigina Woolf's The Waves and I believe the beach to be the perfect setting to read such a text.
I am glad that I was able to visit you, Ciara, just before I returned home. I enjoyed curling up on your balcony, listening to your stories of your recent trip to Ireland. You’ll have to show me some photos when you’ve finished your scrapbook. That reminds me too: I must upload some photographs of the birds I met during my travels. We were lucky to visit the Dorrigo Rainforest, where we met an assortment of interesting birds.
The song for today is:
Dracula — Tame Impala
If I had to select a song for my summer, this would be it. I just had to the loveliest summer, but I think it is time to return to reality. I'm ready to get 2026 started.
Love,
The Gardener