Sunday, June 22, 2014

Cutting Azaleas, Not Hair, Plus A Book Recommendation And A Sort-Of Dirty Joke But Not Really

Here is a true fact:
Give a man a power tool and he will fucking use it.

Mr. Moon recently got some sort of shrub trimming attachment for something, don't ask me, and he got busy with it today. He trimmed back all the azaleas in the yard which have not been trimmed for ten years and let me just say- I hope they grow back.


I know you don't really know what it looked like before he started trimming but I have to admit I'd pretty much forgotten that palm was in there. And I planted it. 
It's a good thing.
He hauled everything to the burn pile which is now about two feet taller than my head. He worked so hard. I reminded him in the early afternoon that he wanted to go look for a new chair and he looked at me like I'd lost my mind.
"Nah. I gotta finish this," he said. 
That is one goal-oriented man, y'all. 
I just remembered the business card of the darling boy who used to cut our grass. It said (and I am not making this up), "We cut your grass, we trim your bush."
And I am sure that tongues were firmly in cheeks when this motto was dreamed up. 

Another one of the young hens laid an egg today! I don't know which one although I suspect it was another of the red hens. Either Nicey or Butterscotch. But when I went out to check eggs, I found a tiny rounded-out nest in a different nesting box from the ones they usually use (three boxes and they all want to lay in the same one, often waiting impatiently in line) and in it was a lovely, perfect brown egg. It is tiny. It fits in a spoon. Here it is with two of my older hen eggs which got laid today. The eggs that is, I have no idea if the hens got laid. 


I wonder what colors of eggs I'll be getting from these ladies. If I knew my chicken breeds, I might have a clue but I do not. I have no interest in researching this issue at all. I'd rather just be surprised and delighted. 

So I spent some time in the yard today too. Mostly I just messed around with potted plants, moving this avocado to this bigger pot and that one to that bigger pot, sticking some ferns that were neglected into a different pot, moving the maiden-hair fern into a bigger pot, etc. 
I weeded in the garden today too, first feeling as I always do that this is the most useless activity in the world and then thinking, Fuck that. I am enjoying this and so what?

Y'all, I want to talk about something. I had never read anything by Elizabeth Gilbert until all the hype about Eat, Pray, Love came out and since it WAS so hyped, I didn't read it for forever and when I did I sort of hated it. I mean, Jeez. Come on. 
But a few weeks ago I picked up a Playaway at the library of her book The Signature Of All Things and it's gorgeous. 


The production of the audio book is terrific. The narrator is one of the best I've ever heard. Juliet Stevenson is her name and oh, her voice...
Oh my. 
A perfect mating between written and spoken word in my opinion. 
But it's long. My Clash Of Kings is sitting there, waiting and I keep thinking this book will be ending soon but it goes on. Not in a bad way. And I will be sad when this one is indeed over. 
I decided a few days ago that great books are never too long and crappy books are never too short. 
I'm a genius, right?

Anyway, The Signature Of All Things is recommended by me and I must apologize to Ms. Gilbert for my previous thoughts on her writing. If one can go off and eat, pray and love and then come up with a book like this then I heartily approve of eating, praying, and loving. 


All right, speaking of gorgeous...did you EVER?
No, I did not grow them. My green-thumbed friend Tom did. He came by today and dropped those off along with some tomatoes he grew. I can't wait to eat them. Do you have a favorite way to eat carrots? I want to do them justice so I'm open to suggestion. 
And they bring to mind one of the possibly three jokes I can ever remember. It goes like this:

Two old peasant women are in a muddy field, picking carrots. One pulls up a huge specimen and says, "Ach! Dis reminds me of my husband, God rest his soul!"
The other lady looks over and asks, "He was dat big?"
"No," says the first woman. "He was dat dirty!"
Mr. Moon and I were looking at these carrots and he asked me, "Do they remind you of me?"
"Yes," I said. 
"I was that dirty?"
"No, you were that beautiful."

Bless. 

Here's what I look like tonight after taking a shower and washing my hair. 


I've been thinking lately that I should cut it. That this is insane, this long, long graying hair on this old lady but I sort of love my long, long graying hair. 
It is mine. It belongs to me and is as much a part of who I am as are the colors of the eggs of my hens a part of who they are. 

I have to go pick some basil now. Tomato and basil and goat cheese salad with our supper tonight. 
I can't wait. 

Love...Ms. Moon


14 comments:

  1. I do not think you should cut your long, graying hair.

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  2. I don't want you to cut your hair. No, I do not.

    I've heard praise for that book, alright, looking forward to it.

    Mary, have you seen Truly Madly Deeply with Juliet Stevenson and Alan Rickman? A very wonderful film.

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  3. LOL Make that 3 no's on cutting your locks.How about a creamy carrot soup with basil served cool. Like a gazpacho,or grilled on the bbq? Heck they are so pretty raw with dressing sounds good...

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  4. I also really like my long greying hair, which I want to henna again if I can just remember to get some...I laughed at the first sentence and at the 'dirty' joke! What do you call a nun on a clown's back? Virgin on the ridiculous!

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  5. I like your hair.
    The eggs are lovely.
    I like carrots roasted with potatoes or sweet potatoes or cauliflower and sweet red peppers. Or all of the above.
    I am so far behind in my reading.
    I am impressed by how hard you work. OMG. I'm a bum by comparison. Mr Moon, too.

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  6. Hahahah. I meant that Mr. Moon works really hard like you. Not that he's a slacker like me.

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  7. I have never heard of that book and I haven't read "Eat, Pray, Love" either, since it was promptly classified (by people I know, at least) as "chick lit" and though I often like "chick lit" somehow I never brought myself to read it. Maybe I should read both of these.

    Anyway, the egg is great and the carrots are beautiful. I'd eat them in a salad, maybe shredded, so cooking doesn't damage the color. Remember that carrot/raisin salad that everybody used to make in the '70s? Something like that.

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  8. I liked Eat Pray Love while I read it and then I read some nasty reviews and I started to rethink and no, I still liked it and then I watched that Julia Roberts movie and that was godawful crap.
    But I love this talk by her: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86x-u-tz0MA

    Please keep growing your hair. I am waiting for more grey to appear and I have promised myself that I will grow it long when that happens.

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  9. I hated that stupid book too and although I love Julia Roberts, I refuse to watch the movie. Glad she redeemed herself with her next book!
    Go get some layers put in your hair. Long layers. It will make you feel like you got a haircut without taking away your length.

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  10. Elizabeth- Okay. I won't.

    Jo- I don't think I've seen it. I'll look for it. Thank you.

    Mary i- Both of those carrot ideas sound good.

    big mamabird- Haha! "Virgin on the ridiculous." Good one.

    Denise- I believe I can just make the smallest work sound like a lot. Most people could probably do in an hour what takes me all day long. I swear. And I knew what you meant. Roasted carrots sounds really good.

    Steve Reed- I LOVE carrot raisin salad! With a mayo and honey and celery-seed dressing.

    Sabine- "god awful crap." I've watched maybe ten minutes of that movie. That was enough.

    heartinhand- Aw, I don't feel the need for layers. Maybe a little. I don't know.

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  11. Oh! I've recently decided to grow out my hair just so I can have long gray hair like yours. I am not liking it much. I feel like a hedgehog and it's more to do. I like washing and forgetting it's even on my head. Ah well.
    Thanks for the book recommendation.
    xxoo

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  12. I just bought the book based on your recommendation and having read the first few pages on Amazon. Thank you!
    And I love that I stopped coloring my hair and let it grow long, like it always was for most of my youth. If that makes me an aging hippie – too bad!

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  13. I am not sure whether I will read the book. I mostly read historical biographies. But might need to look into something different in that line.

    I like your hair. Long hair is nice. Maybe a bit hot in FL as it is here. My wife's hair is shoulder length and she cannot stand it on her neck in the summer. So she puts it up. Pretty.

    I think about the Italian eggplants as being more phallic than carrots. Just sayin'

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