photo no. 12 and 13 - summer reading

pink opium, orange california, and a yellow rose struggling to make it

I am 1/5th of the way through the third book in George R. R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series and yet I just can't seem to relax long enough to do any summer reading.  I have also been encouraged* to finish reading all of Harry Potter, of which I have read only the first book.**  I have digressed to having the attention span of half of a Vogue article and a few runs through twitter (without having 140 characters to tap back).   As of this last weekend it is lovely and sunny and even warm outside and so it should be perfect weather to park my butt in a plastic adirondack chair and read, but I can't shake the feeling that I should be doing something else.  I should be working out, making something healthy to eat, sleeping***.  And then there is the garden.  On Saturday, I pulled weeds for the better part of 4 hours and my hamstrings still ache.  Yet until I get some sort of garden plan in place, the yard is and will continue to be filled with california poppies and patches of dirt.  And gangly roses and opium poppies and chocolate mint.  So it's not all bad.  In any case, I just want to dig in the garden and go on long walks and then wake up and watch the tour de france with my coffee.  why do I have to go to work?****

this one popped out today - opium poppy in purple

*threatened
**don't start with me, I have very particular reading taste and I read very slowly as if digesting every and and the like the last nibbles off of a delightful cheese plate.
***I have stopped sleeping very well since my allergies began in full force (last week) and there is still a glimmer of light in the sky at 10pm (which is not a complaint, I love this, I just also love mid-afternoon naps and I have a day job).
****I guess I need to pay for it all somehow...