Sunday, June 28, 2020

And The Flowers Still Bloom


I meant to post that picture last night. Those are hydrangea blossoms that Maggie handed me when she got out of the car yesterday. Lily's hydrangeas have been blooming and blooming and BLOOMING! They are the most exquisite color, to me.

I've spent most of the day making pickles. Eleven pints in all. Seven of dills and four of an experiment involving cucumbers, onions, a sweet brine and various spices. We shall see what those taste like. Every jar has sealed.


Tomorrow is Mr. Moon's birthday and I have done nothing to prepare for that nor do I have any plans. Well, I did buy the ingredients to make one of his favorite desserts. It is quite decadent with a chocolate custard layer and whipped cream with cream cheese and a pecan crust. I've talked about this before. How the recipe came out of his former mother-in-law's little self-published cookbook but I've never followed that recipe because it calls for things like Jello instant pudding and Cool Whip. To be quite honest, I have eaten and enjoyed Jello instant pudding and Cool Whip on more than one occasion but I will never make this dessert with such tacky products. Especially not for a birthday. 

Everything seems so weird today. Just so, so strange. 

Here we are, summer is well upon us, the heat presses down and the crickets sing that heat into being every day. There are chickens and this beautiful garden and we have electricity and running water and cars that we can jump into and drive places and the grocery stores have stocked shelves and life keeps going on and we have birthdays and we make special desserts and on the one hand it all seems so familiar, so ordinary, and then on the other hand, masks hang from our rear view mirrors and hand sanitizer is always with us and hospital ICU's are at capacity and George Floyd is dead and so are so many others and Trump reshared a video on Twitter with one of his supporters yelling, "White Power! White Power!" although I hear it's come down but Trump's original comment on the video was, "Thank you to the great people of The Villages. The Radical Left Do Nothing Democrats will Fall in the Fall. Corrupt Joe is shot! See you soon!"
The Villages, of course, is an "elite" retirement community in the great state of Florida where white people over the age of fifty-five move when they figure they've worked long enough and have the funds to support that decision. Here's a short and pleasant article about the place and its residents which mostly focuses on the amount of sexual shenanigans the white-haired, golf-cart-driving, fun-loving retirees are getting up to.  
I can hardly imagine a place that sounds more like a living hell to me but I take it that there are a lot of Trump supporters living there. I wonder how much they're going to be loving him when their IRA's and stock portfolios drop like a golf ball onto the rough. 
But the point of this is- we have a president who, in the middle of what might be one of the most powerful movements for the equality of black citizens ever to be seen posts a video of a an old white man shouting "White Power!"
And oh, hell. That's just the very tip of the giant steaming pile of excrement that Donald Trump has laid upon this country. 
He's so desperate right now that it's absolutely ridiculous to even try and predict what he'll come up with next. Everyone knows that there is nothing more dangerous than a wild animal which feels as if it is cornered
I have no idea if Trump actually understands how badly he's failed at the job of being president of the United States. He thought and believed with all of his heart that it was a job done with smoke and mirrors and he was smug in his belief that he was the master of those. 
Well. 
All I want is to be able to spend time with my grandchildren in my grandmother house sitting on the love couch in the library, reading books with them snuggled up to me and having the serious sort of  conversations that one can only have with children. I want to be able to kiss my babies, to hug and hold on to them. I want to go to the river and dive in and I want to be able to sit under the trees and listen to the conversations happening all around me. I want my country to be rid of the evil poison which has flooded it. 
I want us to be a country where everyone does the best they can to help stop this horrible sickness, as August called it, so that we can truly be free again instead of fighting distance and mask requirements in the name of liberty. 

I want to be able to go out with my family to El Patron to celebrate my husband's birthday. 

Meanwhile, we go on. I just pulled the densest loaf of sourdough bread I've ever baked out of the oven. I am so disappointed in myself. But I will say that my pizza last night had the best crust I've ever made. Or at least it was in Mr. Moon's eyes. He loves the thin and crispy crust and oh, my dears- it was. 

I apologize for my rambles. 

Be well. 

Love...Ms. Moon

16 comments:

  1. Crooked Hillary and now Corrupt Joe or Sleepy Joe. Trump is brilliant at turning the truth upside down or creating new "truths" that are in reality lies. That's his talent. He just doesn't care. Happy birthday to Mr Moon...now getting his kicks on Route 66.

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  2. Holding my breath- there is still so much damage that the orange one can make happen. November will kick his butt...and then it will take another twenty years to get some semblance of democracy on track.
    Jars of pickles, best present ever! I am intrigued at the art work by the hydrangeas, I think I LOVE it!

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    1. Also that article is hilarious and pathetic and just Ewww.

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  3. no rambles.....just thoughts I *hear*. Amen to all your thoughts. Yes, we long for the days of closeness....we all do. It breaks all our hearts to live like this. those hydreangeas are just gorgeous! Back in my hippie days I lived in a 100 year old house that had them growing willy nilly ........ loved them then and love them now, though I cannot grow them where I am now. Old fashioned and just perfect. your pickles are lovely....and happy birthday to Mr. Moon!
    Susan M

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  4. It's getting so long, isn't it? Too long. I really believe nothing will be the same again. No nothing, no more. I wonder what new life we are building for the children.
    As for the birthday cake, it will be fab. Like you, I long ago learned to exchange the real deal for the fake ingredients. I so wish people would learn that all that fake stuff is killing them.

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  5. Happy Birthday to Mr. Moon! The cake sounds delicious. I hope you both enjoy his special day!

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  6. And another Happy Birthday to Mr. Moon, and wishes for many happy returns for both of you! Drooling over the cake...

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  7. Ewww, that retirement village sounds just awful. This quote says it all really doesn't it. "Sue Rice, a blonde who will only admit to being over 60 but who looks to be about 80 and dances like she’s 14, has hooked up with Larry Tucker, an ex-banker about a decade her junior."

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  8. He is a despicable despot. I read the article about the Villages, sounds awful. The nice, wonderful, best thing about menopause is that I no longer give a flying fuck what men think of me. Very liberating.

    Happy Birthday to Mr. Moon. Your mother in law's recipe sounds like sex in a pan (an actual recipe), which ties in nicely with the article:)

    Sending hugs and love. Stay safe my friend.

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  9. I gather that place even plays 'Fux' news over loudspeakers. As you say--and I concur--it would be a living hell for me, too.

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  10. Trump knows exactly who and what he is, that's how he knows what to accuse others of. and I think he thinks he's done a great job and does not understand why no one likes him, why we all loathe him. I'm wondering too how we as individuals and society in general are going to be changed by this. if it was just a couple of months like we all thought at first, we would go back to life as usual. but it's going to be a year, maybe longer, and that's long enough to create new habits.

    happy birthday to Mr. Moon.

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  11. I have dark thoughts I won't voice about the world, and its white supremacist retirees and their Village of the Damned. Aii.

    I hope Mr Moon has a delicious birthday. It's all about the dessert, what can I say?

    I loved the little magic fairy anatole in the last post.

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  12. Once again, my comment vanished into the ether. Argh! It is indeed a strange and peculiar time. My aunt lives in The Villages, and I think she's a Trump voter. I was relieved she didn't turn up in that video! I sure wish we had some leadership right about now.

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