EDITORletter

Hat’s Off to Gardening

I’ve been sharing “selfie” pictures of myself in a different hat every couple of days on my personal Facebook page and telling the story behind the hats. Many of the hats are purely for warmth; the photo at left is me in some of my bundled-up-for-winter gardening gear. Others are for protection from the sun, like the two below it. It is very rare now that I will venture outside without some kind of head gear on, but it wasn’t always this way. From youth up until my early thirties, I was extremely hat-averse. If it was cold out, I either more earmuffs or pulled the hood up on my jacket. I have a friend who always said, “Hats are only for people looking for attention. They are saying, ‘Look, I have something on my head.’” And sure, there is that peacocking element to them, of course. Something changed when I started gardening intensely. I think I put on a promotional baseball hat somebody had given me to hold my hair back and keep the sun out of my eyes. That was the “gateway drug,” as they say. And so the hat addiction was born and the collection grew exponentially. Today, I have a hat for every occasion and outfit. I have rain hats and beach hats. Hats that can be thrown in the wash and handmade ones that need extra special care. Hats for casual events and formal ones. Hats in the big, showy Kentucky Derby style and demure little hats for indoor tea parties. And that initial baseball cap? Well, it spawned a whole colony of others in every hue of the rainbow.

Are you a hat person, too? What hats do you wear most often?

Happy gardening,

Kathy Jentz, Editor/Publisher, Washington Gardener KathyJentz@gmail.com

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Volume 16, Number 12 ISSN 1555-8959 © 2022 Washington Gardener All rights reserved. Published monthly.

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