Tuesday, August 22, 2017

We Should All Be Sun Worshippers


Here is what Magnolia June looks like striding across a lawn in her dinosaur dress. I have realized that because of the way I did the gathering for the skirt part before I attached it to the bodice, the pockets are a bit wonky but she certainly does not care. She looked adorable in it. Her mother and I accompanied her to Joanne's Fabrics today so that I could buy new fabric to make her another dress and flannel to make the next new baby a quilt. I have taken to calling him "King Richard" because, of course, that is Gibson's name suggestion. I feel quite certain that he will not be named King Richard but I like calling him that now.
His quilt is going to have llamas on it. A kingly animal, of course.
I hope I bought enough fabric to perhaps make a few sleeper gowns for him too. Lily said today, "So. Sewing is your new addiction isn't it?"
I paused and said, "Yeah. I guess it is."

I'm going to have to take a break in the sewing though because look what Mr. Moon brought home tonight:


There's a man who lives down the road who keeps goats and guinea hens and I don't know what all and obviously grows okra. He brought that whole dang huge bucketful of okra to Mr. Moon at his office and charged him 12 dollars for it. He had told me that he was getting a bunch of okra for me to pickle so I bought another case of canning jars and more vinegar and dill seed and mustard seed but damn! That's a lot of okra! It would be worth it to pickle it all though because it's so delicious. So I know what I'm doing tomorrow. And you know that nothing could make me happier unless I'd grown the okra myself. I have at least a gallon bag of the rocket-shaped vegetable in my refrigerator which I did grow and I'll pickle those too. 

This afternoon I blanched and iced and then froze three more quart-sized bags of field peas and it's so nice to have the freezer filling up with those. They're going to taste so good this winter. I was watching TV the other day while I sewed the buttons on Maggie's dress and there was a commercial for some sort of processed granola bar which showed people running up a mountain at an obviously suicidal pace and then stopping to rip open an aforementioned granola bar with the voice-over intoning, "Nature's harvest of energy from the sun!" or some bullshit like that and I thought, "Well, fuck, what isn't?"
From asparagus to zucchini, everything we eat wouldn't exist without the sun, up to and including meat whose donor animals get their sustenance from the plants they eat. And it's nice to have food in the freezer that I myself have harvested from the energy of the sun. 
Even the venison we eat, the eggs we consume all, ultimately, get their energy from the sun and that's just the way of it. 
And thus, so do we. 
Duh.
We are stardust, we are golden, and we live on sunlight which has been chemically altered into food that we can eat.  

Well, that's all I have to say tonight. 

We shall continue the conversation tomorrow in whatever form it may take. 

Love...Ms. Moon

16 comments:

  1. Magnolia looks like she is on a mission. That is one determined stride. I love it?

    I have never seen okra before right now.

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    1. Magnolia is determined and funny and smart. She is all of the good things.
      Really? You've never seen okra? I believe it was a vegetable which came over from Africa (where so many of our treasures originated) and it is a beautiful vegetable.

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    2. I love it was not supposed to be a question.

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  2. That's a whole lotta okra!
    You are so right about everything we eat being harvested one way or another from the sun. Also the energy we use, with the exception of nuclear, is solar in origin - even winds and tides. That is one of my favorite Crosby, Stills, and Nash songs. Did you know that Joni Mitchell wrote it? Of course you know that. Cheers!

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    1. Yes. I knew that. She wrote so many of of the best songs, didn't she?

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  3. Your statement about accompanying Magnolia to the store made me giggle. Her stride is impressive I'd agree. She's going places for sure. I've never eaten okra pickled or otherwise. MN isn't big on it :)

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  4. What a darling little girl she is! And looking so sweet in her darling little dress!

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  5. I grew velvet okra instead of the clemson spineless. I'm amazed at how different the plants are! I've never pickled it. we just have never been much for pickled anything but I guess if I'm going to keep growing food I should learn.

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  6. Yes! And honey bees too.

    Oh. My. Goodness. That dress! It could not be more adorable. It's the perfect combination of fitting her perfectly, yet having room to grow.

    You did that hem without a ruffler foot? Funny, I've had a sewing addiction this year, but my projects are waaaay jenkier than yours.

    Only kings ride llamas.

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  7. Isn't she something! A cherub in a dinosaur dress. The sun is hiding out from us today and that is fine. It's back under the covers for me. What do you eat pickled okra with? Or is it strictly a condiment/side dish?

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  8. well, that dress is the be all! I would have put the pocket in front for easier cookie getting cause that is how we like to dress! Good job, sweet!

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  9. That dress looks PERFECT for Magnolia June. God, we all love that little girl, don't we? We love all your kids and grand-kids, and most of all, you.

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  10. The dress is great! I still love that dinosaur fabric. I can't wait to see what the llamas look like!

    Yeah, the sun is pretty much the provider, isn't it? The Egyptians had it right, worshipping Ra.

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  11. That little Magnolia June is a star! Such a confident, purposeful stride she has!

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  12. You could sell those dresses. I love your pickling. Did you know there is a ludicrous English show from the 60s set in the North East of England excactly where I come from Characters very like people from my childhood. It is called Nearest and Dearest about Nellie and Eli Pledge who own a pickle factory. Nellie (Hylda Baker) a is particularly wonderful talks in a thick Lancashire accent like I do says oooh a lot and uses loads of malpropisms. I adore her and have just rediscovered her on Youtube (you might not understand a word) I like to think of you as a latter day Nellie Pledge "Ooooooh that Resident Frump from that repugnacious party he wants to get in that picklin factory and get picklin. x

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  13. Oh better put warning that above Pickle Factory show and Nellie/Hylda is full of appalling sexual innuendo that would quite rightly not get past the censors today!

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