Memorial Day. So yeah, I took a walk. I checked in with the news of the day. Israel, Korea, BP.
Hey, you: Get offa my cloud.
I went to yoga. I took my antidepressant. I worked in the yard. I talked to Kathleen and Jessie. I took a nap. I sliced the first red tomatoes from the garden,
fried bacon and made sandwiches. I wrote a poem. I went blackberry picking with Mr. Moon.
A wasp who was hiding in a pine branch I grabbed stung the shit out of my finger. Big deal. I was doing my job, he was doing his. Which is not to say I didn't yell at him. "Motherfucking cocksucker!" The curses helped deal with the pain so that I could continue to pick.Can I tell you how thick the bushes are with fruit this year? They are barely beginning to ripen. We worked for about an hour and a half to get enough berries to make a cobbler and I made the kind that was talked about in Steel Magnolias: "A cup of butter, a cup of flour, a cup of sugar, a cup of fruit. And I need some ice cream to cut the sweetness." Or something like that.
The cobbler and a venison meat loaf are in the oven. I am boiling potatoes with garlic to mash. I will make salad with more tomatoes and a garden cucumber.
Summer is here.
Why can't it just be about blackberries and tomatoes and cucumbers and eggs? Why do we have to worry about Israel and Korea and BP?
Why can't it just be about grandsons and going to the truck stop to buy vanilla ice cream to go on the cobbler?
Because it can't. That's why.
Go wash the dishes. Go fold the laundry.
I'll try to lighten up tomorrow. I promise.
Waylon is going to be here for me to take care of.
The frogs are talking with their throats.
The rest- well. We'll just hang on and see what happens.
Happy Memorial Day.
We're doing the best we can, beating our swords into plowshares, one acre at at time.
My dear Ms. Moon, at least here, in this small space, it IS about cucumbers and tomatoes and blackberries and grandsons, and I am so, SO grateful for your voice.
ReplyDeleteLove you.
I wish so too. Here on my little island, the rest of the world seems really far away...until I turn on the news.
ReplyDeleteI am sure that the cobbler was good.
Happy Memorial Day to you too. I can totally imagine you yelling what you yelled when you got stung. I do hope some of these worries go away especially the BP disaster but I am afraid it will just be replaced by something just as awful. Take care and have a great week.
ReplyDeleteOh, nice. Lalalalalala to the other. We don't get blackberries here til August/September!
ReplyDeleteEvery year I swear I'll go find some, and I haven't managed to get there yet.
I'm so glad to know you're there in your garden, growing things and even having spats with wasps...while all the rest of the crap rages on...we all are in our own way, getting on with it, from a safeish distance.
ReplyDeleteYour food talk is tormenting me, by the way. I had fat free yoghurt for breakfast. Oh god. Only day two.
Angie C- Love you too.
ReplyDeleteSyd- It was strangely bitter. I have no idea why.
Mr. Shife- You too. I am thinking of you.
Jo- It's always SO hot when they're ripe. And buggy. And snaky. And yet- how can we not go pick them?
Screamish- I'll try not to talk about food for awhile. I'll try.
Those blackberries look YUM. I love berries.
ReplyDeleteHope it was a good holiday weekend for you. I had a nice one.
Love you.
Ms. Moon - serious question here. Did you grow your own vegetables when your children were tiny? It just seems like so much work and planning and timing to get right.
ReplyDeleteI think it takes babies and gardens and poetry to fill up the big gaping holes left by wars, and BP, and foolishness.
ReplyDeleteViva la Babies.
Oh what a lovely harvest! Look at those berries sparkling in their colander. And I'll bet they sparkled all the way down to you and Mr Moon's stomach once they had been cobbled. And tomatoes, All Ready! I am too jealous to write anything more...except we love you and hope your wasp sting is much better this morning. x0 N2
ReplyDeleteMs. Moon, even when I can't comment, please know that reading your blog and seeing your wonderful photos is a bright point for me, every day. The photo of the blackberries is stunning. If you entered it into a contest for summer photos, I'll bet you would win.
ReplyDeleteThe technology boom is such a mixed blessing. Were it not for tv and computers, we would not have to deal with Every Single Fucking Thing That Goes On In The World. It used to be, you waited for the newspaper writers to write and edit the story, and the paper got printed, then it got delivered to your house, and by the time you read about it, the urgency had passed and the people who were supposed to take care of the problem were already taking care of it. Of course, without computers, we wouldn't have blogs either.
hay. I didn't know my cobbler recipe was so famous.
ReplyDeleteyes, I too follow pretty much the same routine as you list: this IS how we lighten up.
xoxo
Ms. Bastard-Beloved- I am glad you have a good weekend. And we did too!
ReplyDeleteMwa- Yes. I did. I was a good hippie mother and gardened like crazy and made hundreds of quarts of pickles. I'm not kidding. I do not now know how I did it.
Lisa- I agree.
E.- So very true. It's all immediate and as close as next door.
Swallowtail- We do what we can, don't we?
Those blackberries look divine and will make a great cobbler. I would skip the ice cream and have mine with a big glass of cold milk please.
ReplyDeleteI'm just thankful that we can have a little something lovely in our little corners of the world.
Blackberries already? I am so envious of your climate. Here it is still cold and rainy, and I must wear a sweater everywhere I go.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, sometimes it seems like you're reporting from heaven --
ReplyDeleteMy sister and I were just talking about that recipe the other day, she wanted to make an apple crisp and wondered if that would work. Your produce looks amazing!
ReplyDelete