Young Emily helping Grandma June.
I feel devoted to my garden this summer in a way that is unfamiliar to me. Normally, I’ll do my part in preparing beds and all that, but tend to run on the low maintenance end of the gardener spectrum. But this year, for whatever reason, I can’t seem to keep my hands off of her – like the aunt with uncontainable adoration that’s just gotta pinch your cheeks one more time. Poor garden. She looks amazing though and doesn’t seem to mind the incessant doting.
As summers go, this one is mild so it’s been easy to keep my southern New England humidity complaints to a minimum. Still, I find myself seeking quiet on most afternoons. Not as desperate as the sit-in-front-of-a-fan-eating-frozen-grapes kind of hot afternoons, but a slow down of a less urgent kind. Enter my new knitting companion: Heartland. Thought I’d mention it here in case I’m the second to last person to know of it. It’s a Canadian TV series about a ranch family and their teenage daughter who is a gifted horse whisperer, or as she prefers to call it, horse listener. It’s a family friendly kind of show with a whole bunch of feel good moments which is exactly how I like my media these days. (Whether or not those feel good moments are cheesy and unwatchable is debatable in this household, depending on who you're asking.) What really gets me is the gorgeous Alberta, Canada location the show is (mostly) filmed in, and equally, the horses. I’m not a horse person by experience, but married into a family of serious horse people so the lifestyle feels familiar (my father-in-law a former cowboy, blacksmith, and farrier; my mother-in-law a professional horse trainer), and I wouldn’t be surprised if there is a relationship with horses at some point in my life.
Anyway, the horsemanship in this show is incredible, and the whole setting is a pleasure to watch. So if you’re like me and enjoy a good dose of oxytocin with your TV viewing, Heartland might be something to pair with your knitting on these remaining summer afternoons.