Swinging from the Trees

Earlier this year I bought a hammock and a mountain bike in a garage sale. The hammock is massive: large enough to fit two people either lying vertically or stretched out horizontally across its width. Day before yesterday was the first time I used it. I took it along to Caura Valley where I'd gone with a friend who had an appointment with someone. I strung up the hammock in a bamboo grove and, while they were meeting, I lay there, cocooned in the large white folds, reading a novel and munching on various fruits and nuts. Being out in the country, hearing only birds, breeze and the creaking of the bamboo all around me, I eventually drifted off to sleep.

Then yesterday I strung the hammock up at the bottom of the garden between the sapodilla tree (where the Dream Catcher is) and the purple poui. Being a public holiday, everything was quiet. My nephew was over and he and I lay there chatting, sucking the seeds out of a passion fruit and gently swinging. When he was gone I finished reading the novel.

Nothing like a good hammock. It's a prime investment.