A Real Good Soakin'

Deep into the summer, just about this time of year, when the cotton was in bloom and making the all critical fruit, 

The creamy white cotton bloom has turned pink

It never ceases to amaze me that a square becomes a bloom becomes
a boll, and then becomes fluffy white cotton, 
all from the dirt.
See more about the stages of cotton HERE

back before everything was irrigated, it would get so dry sometimes that huge, spreading cracks would start to form in the fields of our sandy loam. (Susan and I would play a dusty game trying not to step on the cracks. You remember "step on a crack, break your mother's back". We didn't want to do that!). 

Rain was desperately needed and Daddy could talk about nothing but

 "gettin a good soakin", about how a

 "real good soakin" would cure all of our ills, set everything in our world just right.

OK, poetic license allowed here, please!
This is actually beans, soybeans, not cotton!

I confess, I did not know this word until today!
I must use it soon!
I do LOVE petrichor, it brings back childhood memories
 of living out on the Coldwater River.
THERE!

I, in fact, had to give my plants 

on the porch one this steamy, 

storm threatened, August morning,

 a "real good soakin".

A white house in a looming storm,
It reminded me of mine.
Evan Leavitt photo

A "REAL GOOD SOAKIN'"

This is how my mind wanders and works . . .

I did have another

 "real good soakin" recently.

I totally love these outdoor tubs. 
Guess you can't take the farmer's daughter out of me!
This one is my favorite -
Garden of Earthly Delights comes to mind.
A statue, architectural salvage, plants - so earthy AND elegant.

I am visualizing THIS on the side of the Delta Bohemian Guest House.

 I have to make a confession about myself, until two weeks ago I had not had one, a "real good soakin", a bath, 

in almost five years. 

You see I am almost exclusively 

a shower girl these days.

 I had literally forgotten the pleasures of a

 "real good soakin" and how it can indeed cure all ills, set everything in the world just right.

I love the duality but togetherness here.

As fate would have it, 

on a recent visit to THE Delta Bohemian, Madge Marley Howell's home,

 the Salone de Boheme, I didn't stay in my usual spot. 

Bohemian Bath

Patriotic Bath

 I stayed upstairs where my bathroom was outfitted with a huge, deep, white, old-fashioned type tub with black iron feet and NO shower, so a "real good soakin'" was mandatory. 

Where I had my first "real good soakin'" in a long time
Salone de Boheme

A must for hair washing!

What was for a minute dismay at not having a shower quickly turned into actual longing for and excited anticipation of a

 "real good soakin", a long, hot, delicious bath in that big, beautiful, slick tub, a therapeutic cleansing of body and soul 

to set my world right.

More of my beloved earthy AND elegant with the door to the garden . . .

And I had one, complete with all the accoutrements, candles, a glass of good red wine, several magazines I have been wanting to read, and of course the obligatory bubbles. My dry spell was over.

Champagne while you soak?
OR perhaps a "Dark and Stormy"?

To make a Dark and Stormy, especially if it's raining:
Fill glass with ice
Squeeze a  fresh lime over the ice
Add half a slice of crystallized ginger
Slowly pour ginger beer over the ice
Slowly top with dark rum
Garnish with a lime wedge
Gently stir before drinking

 As a result of my "real good soakin", I have been obsessing a bit over bathtubs.

This is one of my all time favorites.
From a long ago Veranda, I am pretty sure!
The vines and moss hook me right on in.

A mural AND a silhouette!
I love both.

This could be so many places in my Delta.
And I love the faux bois table.
For more of my long affair with faux bois click HERE

I have used a horse trough and tubs for many things . . .

A little while ago, the day's heat did finally break, and we got that "real good soakin" we have been needing, actually a storm. Sometimes I love a storm, one WITH a

 "real good soakin".  
(See recipe above for a Dark and Stormy.)
I'm off to a bath!

Written in the heat to rumbles of thunder on the porch this morning:

Come on baby storm for me

You were born for me

I hear the thunder roll

I'm in a hot summer hole

I'm sinkin down

I need what ya got

Maybe I'm wrong but I thought we had a lot

You don't have to be a tortured soul

Don't play at it

Don't walk away with it

Come on baby storm for me

Pour down your rain on me

I need it to thrive

Just barely staying alive

You got to be a caretaker to this

 caretaker soul

This is too hard for me

I'm trying so hard for it not to be

Oh how I pray you would just storm for me

There's no peace in just the plain old rain

I need your words and I need your brain

The blue jay finally took a seed

I just watch from the porch as he left still in need

The storm doesn't scare me

The nothing does

Come on baby storm for me

You were born for me

I hear the thunder roll

I'm in a hot summer hole

Perfect for Soaking a Deux

A Kiss in the Rain?

What's your pleasure, bath or shower?

Which bath most appeals to you for 

"a good soakin"?

What accoutrements do you like in a bath?

Do you like to watch a storm from your 

front porch?

A rainbow after the storm, after the rain
Promises for another day . . .

photo credits: Marilyn Trainor, Pinterest, Evan Leavitt, Architectural Digest, Elle Decor