Your Scribe has not given his cabin an official name, but I am considering Bittersweet.

Bittersweet, the vine, is currently the most prominent visual aspect of the property.

I planted the fast-growing "flower" knowing that it would rise quickly. It has. As you can see in this photo, it is making itself known on the front porch.

Many homeowners curse bittersweet. They say it will "take over" the garden, or corrupt the outside of the house. All of which implies that bittersweet has the power to compromise the life experience.

But I am letting it grow. Because it grows.

Right now the corn isn't growing. The pumpkins aren't growing. Even my New Guineau impatiens are battling extinction. So I am keeping my bittersweet.

I am cranky about other weeds growing around the cabin. I know I should weed, but I do not feel like doing so during the few days a week I am there.

I would rather be at the river, swimming or canoeing. Or driving through my sector of cabin country, seeing new country roads and picturesque cabins.

My cabin is hardly the like of Tara, in "Gone with the Wind," or Monticello, the spacious (if unpaid for) retreat of Thomas Jefferson.

Still, we can dream.

So I am thinking of my own beloved retreat in the countryside and for now it will be known as . . Bittersweet.

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