Lorraine Bodger - The Four Seasons of Love

Lorraine Bodger is the author and illustrator of nine gift books with Andrews McMeel Publishing, including I'm Happy If You're Happy and Love Stuff. She lives and loves in New York City.

The Four Seasons of Love copyright 2005 by Lorraine Bodger.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used
or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission
except in the case of reprints in the context of reviews. For
information, write Andrews McMeel Publishing, an Andrews McMeel
Universal company, 1130 Walnut Street, Kansas City, Missouri 64106 .

E-ISBN: 978-0-7407-8778-2

Library of Congress Control Number: 2005921769

www.andrewsmcmeel.com

Illustrations by Lorraine Bodger
Book design by Holly Camerlinck

Jacket design by Julie Barnes
Jacket Illustrations by Lorraine Bodger

Author photo by Roberta Allen

The year turnsgolden summer, crisp autumn, cozy winter, tender springand each season brings its pleasures and delights for lovers. No season lacks opportunity for love and romance; every season is a time for celebration, a time to enjoy each other and the world you make together.

The seasons are a wonderful metaphor for loveconstant, eternal, yet always changing. They bring variety, excitement, and fun to our lives, just as love does. You resist them at some times, embrace them at others. You look forward to one season and feel a little wistful as it gradually transforms itself into the next seasonbut you also anticipate its certain return. Is love any different?

The very best you can do for yourself in life is to fling yourself wholeheartedly into the unique pleasures of each month of the year and live fully in every magical moment. This is true of love as well. Put the two together and you have The Four Seasons of Love.

So fill your lovers calendar with joy (and kisses!), and dont let a day go by without showing your devotion to the one you cherish most. Treasure every season. Make plans, make love, make memories.

Summer is playfulthe fun season of the year. Where does love fit in? Everywhere! The cottage at the lake, the cabin in the woods, Saturdays at the seashore, weekend getaways for just the two of you, long vacations together far from home. Drive-in movies and backyard pools, theme parks and outdoor concerts, frosty summer drinks on the terrace, a hammock under the treesso many romantic things to do in the golden sunshine and flower-bright colors of summer.

Make your summer a summer of love. Get married in a fragrant green garden under a cobalt blue sky. Take your sweetheart on a perfect picnic or woo him with a cool summer drink at twilight. Wear something bare and sexy, dance under the stars, go skinny-dipping. Croon a love song to your darling or treat her to an old-fashioned romantic movie. Shower your love with June blossoms, July fireworks, and August love tokens. Let the heat of summer add spice to your romance, and enjoy every minute of it.

Its the first deep blue, star-lit, meltingly warm, deliciously scented night of true summer. You stand at your window, on your balcony, on the front porch, in the backyardand suddenly youre thrust back in time. Youre overcome with memories of a long-lost summer love you rarely think about now. Someone to whom you gave your whole heart. Someone you couldnt wait to see every day of one magical July or August. Someone who made your pulse race and your skin tingle. You waited for the phone call, the knock on your door, the sound of the voice you longed to hear more than anything else.

Years have passed. Youve moved on. You dont even know where your once-beloved now lives. But this enchanted summer night has brought your summer lover back to you on the strong wings of memory. Its melancholy and sweet at the same time, a precious moment to cherishand then to let go.

When summer puts you in the mood for romance, but you want to stay inside your house where the air-conditioning will keep things cool enough for hot snuggling, pop one of these old-fashioned romantic movies into that newfangled machine.

The Long Hot Summer

A Summer Place

Splendor in the Grass

Summertime

Roman Holiday

Breakfast at Tiffanys

Sabrina (the original!)

Gone with the Wind

Casablanca

An Affair to Remember

The African Queen

The Philadelphia Story

Some Like It Hot

Youve made a spectacular summer garden. Its brilliant with color and the fragrance is luscious; bees are buzzing contentedly, butterflies dance and flirt like pretty girls at a party. Zinnias, daisies, marigolds, peonies, petunias, sweet peas, snapdragons, roses, lilies, lobelia, gardenias, gladioli, pansies, alyssum, sunflowers, cornflowers, heather, honeysuckle, hollyhocks, and delphiniumssuch lovely names, such lovely flowers.

Take time to enjoy your garden. True, it blooms every year, but a garden is like lovenot a moment of it should be wasted. Give attention to your gardencultivate it, care for it, admire it. Share your gardenbring bouquets to your sweetheart every day, picnic in it deux, sip wine together while the sun sets and the changing light plays over the blossoms. Your garden is a romance with the senses, and theres nothing sweeter than spending time there with your beloved.

Herbs have traditional meanings and mythical powers for lovers. Grow them as plants or potsgrow lots! They add savor and relish to food (and life). Run your hands firmly over the leaves and then sniff your palmsinstant fragrance, fresh and delicious. Let your lover sniff, too mmm, maybe a little kiss on that sweet-smelling palm?

• Rosemary, for remembrance

• Chervil, for sincerity

• Sage, for wisdom and esteem

• Summer savory, for mental powers (cast a spell on him!)