Agriculture

As a cool, dampish week transitioned to a hotter, sunny weekend, we passed through what seemed to me on Friday evening a moment of perfect balance. Comfortable, perfect for a dinner on the screened porch. Looking out, as our little retreat became enveloped in velvety twilight highlighted by pinpoints of hundreds of firefly lights, evoked in my mind the words "luxe, calme et volupté." It's a phrase I first encountered over 50 years ago in a college course on Baudelaire and his fellow 19th century romantic poets. Perhaps the phrase (there are several viable translations, but for these purposes I would say "luxuriance, calm, and voluptuousness or desire") was so appealing to focus on because it so contrasted with how I felt. With a throat ravaged by a mild case of COVID, I could be more aptly described as "red, raspy and raw". There's nothing either luxuriant or calm about such a state; I was too listless to feel desire. Yes, after dodging the virus for over two years, Éric woke up with symptoms one