Entertaining Fantasies And Recognizing Realities

 Looking up through the magnolia grandiflora. 

There is simply no way to judge the size of that tree from the photos but here's a shot of how big each of the leaf clusters is.

If you look at my header picture you can see the tree behind the right dormer and chimney. And this is a tree that I would never cut down unless there was some absolutely do-or-die reason. The trees can live to be 120 years old or more. I wonder how old ours is. In one of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings' books, she says that a new magnolia will not sprout while the mother tree is alive. I don't know if that's true but ours certainly hasn't sent up a shoot to grow into a baby. 
On top of all of that, the blooms of the magnolia are the queens of all the tree flowers, big as dinner plates with thick, white waxy leaves and they smell of lemon-scented heaven. 

And now our magnolia has even more room to stretch out. Also, it is more fully in my sight as I sit on my back porch, nothing in front of it to block my view of its glory. This morning Glen and I sat in some chairs underneath it and looked at the empty space before us. It was cool and the sun shining on us made me feel as if I was melting into a sweet, sticky honey-like bliss.

For years now, I've been talking about putting in a pool where those trees were, or at least in part of the area. And doesn't that sound like heaven? When I was growing up, having a pool was the absolute most rich-person thing you could do. I did not know one person in Roseland who had a pool although the woman we called "Aunt Dot" who ran a childcare business in her house did have a pool and when I went there in the summers we were in the water for at least four hours out of six. I was as much merchild as I was human child. 
And of course, there was The Pool. The pool in Roseland that my feral friends and I discovered at the end of a white sand road down by the river. It was an an abandoned piece of property. There was a little cabana house and the burnt ruins of a big house. We thought we'd discovered the lost continent of Atlantis. That pool was big enough and magnificent enough, even in its near-ruination, to hold all the magic in the world. And then of course, I re-found it when I was all grown up and two beautiful men had bought the property and made the pool magnificent again and rented out the restored cabana house where we love to stay. 

Sometimes real life beats the hell out of fiction. 

I did actually get a pool of mine own in the house we lived in before this one. That pool was about the only thing I loved about that house. Well, the pool and the back porch which was as wide and long as the trailer I lived in back in the late '70's. 
God, I loved that pool. It was just so pretty. And of course it was fun to have. But when we found this house, I let that pool go like a shiny nickel through a hole in my pocket. 

But here we are, me in my dream house, Mr. Moon with his dream Garage Mahal, and a pretty big space that a pool could conceivably go in. The cost of a new pool is astronomical but if we really wanted to go that way, we could. I know the kids and grandkids would love it but there are a lot of reasons it's not a great idea. 
The cost, of course, and after the expense of putting it in you have to pay for maintenance unless you want to do it yourself and we do not. The mere idea of having heavy equipment and so many people putting a pool in is enough to make me shudder. I sort of thought I'd die when the roofers were here for a week. 

Oh well. It's a thing to think about. It's so interesting to have options, to consider different things. 
A small fruit orchard or a swimming pool? I know which one would be the most environmentally friendly. No confusion in that area. 
But then I think of what it feels like to swim naked at night under the moonlight and how good it feels to get in the water after a hot walk or spending hours working in the yard. 

Meanwhile, here we are with our magnolia tree and this house I love so much and the Wacissa River right down the road. I wouldn't have to share a pool with all of Jefferson County but the springs are prettier and colder and clearer than any pool could be. 
A lot to consider. 

I saw Beautiful Brenda at the Costco today and I am kicking myself for not asking her if I could take her picture. I could not take my eyes off her gorgeous mermaid eyes. We had a little catch-up chat and she's going through some stuff and I hate that for her. She's so cheerful and hard-working. 

I hope she knows her worth in this world. I hope she knows how beautiful she is. 

I would wish that for all of us. 

Love...Ms. Moon