Thursday, August 17, 2017

Hey! Grab That Branch And Keep Hanging On!


As you can see, Magnolia June is a little bit sick with a cold but that just gives her rosier cheeks. There she is with her handsome daddy who adores her.
And I adore him.

Yes, yes, we went out for lunch again. Hank and Rachel met us this time and Jason got to come too. Our waiter's face is becoming as familiar to me as a family member's.
"Are you just so thrilled to see us again?" I asked him as we were sitting down.
"Oh yes," he said.
Well, we do tip nicely, all of us having been servers at one point or another.

After lunch I went to the main library, the BIG library. I rarely go there anymore since they built the branch library on the east side of town but sometimes I do and when I do, I am amazed once again by how wonderful libraries are with their books and their internet and their magazines and audio books and DVD's and music CD's and newspapers and atlases and just all of it. Libraries are my favorite indoor space and as I have said so many times before, the absolute highest proof of civilization.
A building dedicated to knowledge where no one asks you for a penny.
Our libraries are handing out free vegetable seeds again. We are allowed to get three packets a month and today I got two packets of slow-bolting cilantro and one of arugula. They do this in the spring and in the summer and give out seeds which are seasonal.
Books AND seeds? For free?
Bliss.

I eavesdropped on a conversation between two men sitting at a table by the new fiction. One of them said, "There's something wrong with that woman," and I was so afraid they were talking about Hilary Clinton and that then they were going to go into some horrible racist tirade and I was going to have to search my conscience and heart to decide whether to say anything or not- and what would the ethics be there?- but as I kept listening I realized they were talking about celebrities like the Kardashians and other reality TV personalities and how these women freak out if they break a fingernail and other "bullshit like that," and I sort of wanted to sit down and chat with them about these issues but of course I did not. I did note that for people who are so disdainful of reality TV, they sure did know a lot about it. I mean, at least I ADMIT that the fact that Luann on the Real Housewives of NYC is getting a divorce from her husband of seven months is something I find endlessly entertaining.

And then I just came home. I did not go to Publix or Costco or anywhere else and I have spent the entire afternoon sewing and just loving it. I figured out the ruffle on the shoulder strap by completely eliminating it and I am not putting a zipper in (a zipper in a toddler dress? oh, fuck no) but have sewn little loops on the back and will go through my button box to find buttons to put there and maybe on the pockets as well. I'm down to the ruffle on the bottom but I think I may redo the attachment of the bodice to the skirt because I'm not happy with the way it's done now but we'll see. I am so grateful that I have rediscovered sewing because it's something I can do in the air conditioning which is still somewhat productive, a bit creative, meditative, and actually of some use. I just cannot bring myself to work outside right now, not even to go and pick up downed branches to drag to the burn pile. It's all I can do to walk to the hen house and check for eggs.

Speaking of which, I was looking at Dottie's babies today as they pecked at their scratch and suddenly it hit me that all three of them could be roosters. Why hasn't this occurred to me before? I already have three too many roosters.
Oh Lord.

Well, I think that's probably the down home equivalent of breaking a fingernail or some bullshit like that so I'll end this now.
I'm not going to talk about politics today. It is all too obvious what's going on. I will say that I heard part of an interview with Al Gore and he seems to be such an intelligent, hopeful, wise, and informed human being that it gave me the tiniest reassurance that perhaps this country will survive.

Carry on my wayward friends. I'm going to go heat up some leftovers.

Love...Ms. Moon

24 comments:

  1. I love your family lunches. And that you are having such fun sewing dresses for Maggie, love in every stitch.

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    1. It's so funny how much I'm enjoying this sewing thing. I guess I really needed a granddaughter.

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  2. Three more roosters for you would be far too cruel a twist fate.

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  3. My cousin raises chickens. They are her beloved pets too. Got 11 out of 13 be roosters a few years ago.

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  4. I'm glad to learn there's such a thing as slow-bolting cilantro.
    I recently heard Gore speak too, and still regret he didn't become President. How different things might have been. And how long ago it all seems now.

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    1. It does seem long ago, doesn't it? Back when we thought that Bush was the worst thing that could possibly happen?
      "Slow bolting" with cilantro just means that it doesn't bolt as soon as it sprouts in my experience.

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  5. That Maggie is a real beauty. I love that you make her clothes. I once had a doll named Jackie. She was old and beat up as both my sisters had Jackie first. But I recall putting my baby nightgown on her! I hope Lily saves these gems you're making for her.

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    1. She probably saves them. I don't know. I can always make more.
      I love visualizing you putting your baby nightgown on your doll. That was definitely something I would have done.

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  6. Long time no comment Life! Still reading and relating to your words. I just rediscovered sewing too Is the Luann husband the Tom one? They only fell in love a few weeks ago here in the UK where the are up to New Year. I like Bethany fro the NYC lot. We have. UK Celeb Big Bro on at moment here and Brandi from the RH of Beverly Hills is on it. Marvellous. Also RHBH As well as NYC and various other wonderful terrible things Absolutely Glorious. No one does trash TV as well as The USA Love from across the pond Maggi xxx

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    1. Yes! Luann is the Tom one. They're already divorcing. What an idiot she was to marry him.
      And I am so happy and proud to know that American trash TV is the BEST trash TV! I believe it.

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  7. Ms. Moon, this heat is sapping my will to live! I hear you on the A/C thing. I can barely stand walking to and from my car right now. I can't wait for fall.

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  8. I had lunch with my son yesterday too. Which we've been doing a lot lately. Mary, this is a way, way more momentous event than it may sound, since I only met him last month.

    Yes, since his father, a shit beyond measure, dumped me, and I was a student nurse, I had no choice but to put him up for adoption. Adoptions in Australia are all completely closed, that is, the authorities do not permit any contact whatever between relinquishing mothers and adopting parents and children.
    So I have spent the last 45 years wondering...

    Until last month when my darling boy... man, tracked me down! Am I happy? You betcha! He looks very like his father (fuck!)but with my eyes. But at least he is a good, kind, decent man, so not really like his biological father at all.

    Mary, I'm sorry to take up so much space here, but I just wanted to share my good news with you.

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    1. Oh, how wonderful!!!!
      I can't even imagine how your heart must feel. I am so glad that boy/man found you.

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  9. Whenever you talk about sew I think of my own grandma. She sewed pockets on all my kids clothes so they "had a place to keep their things", as she used to say. And they did! Toy plastic dinosaurs. Polly Pockets. Stickers.

    I hope Magnolia feels better soon.

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    1. That's awesome! My grandfather often said that every garment needed a hip pocket. He was right. Or at least some sort of pocket.

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  10. sounds like a completely satisfying day being with people you love and doing stuff you love. I had a fun day yesterday, another estate sale and came home with too many goodies.

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    1. You must live in the estate sale center of the universe, Ellen!

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    2. one of the shops around the square does estate sales. my sister is on her mailing list. she generally has one or two a month.

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  11. The temperature here has been in the 50's, seasonal allergies causing vertigo, every fall this happens.
    Magnolia June - I have to hug something when her photo shows up here on your blog! She needs a pockety frock, for carrying chips, rocks, baby chooks, peach pits. Must have pockets!

    So, rooster stew in the pot?

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  12. It seems unlikely that all three of them are roosters, but I guess anything's possible! Your poor hens will be exhausted! LOL

    Of course I love your comments about libraries. I feel the same way, but I only wish our students did. (Some of them do...many of them do not.)

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  13. Love, love that photo and the title as well. I've read an article that while chicken genders aren't temperature dependent prior to hatching in the same way as reptiles, male embryos can withstand higher temperatures than the females. About 89 F vs 96 F for the males. (Sounds like it's pretty hot there...)

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