Saturday, July 24, 2021

I Hear There's Oscar Buzz

I slept eleven hours straight last night which seems impossible but that's what I did. I suppose I needed it. If so, I surely got what I needed. I woke from the most Leo of Leo dreams. Of course I do not "believe" in astrology but there do seem to be traits. I was born in Leo but have been told that I have more Cancer in my chart which explains why I am so generally fulfilled with homemaking but occasionally wonder why the hell I'm not famous. And in my dream I found myself to be suddenly on the cusp of fame. I had somehow managed to be hired to be in a film and at the end, the director was revealed to be Wes Anderson and after filming was complete, he shook my hand and said something like, "Very special talent," and he shook my hand. I had been thinking (in my dream) that I'd been hired simply because I was old and funny-looking and fat, a comic figure sure to make the audience laugh but then I had realized that old, funny-looking fat women are legion and so someone must have seen something in me. 
Right? 
And then other directors and notable Hollywood figures also gave me praise- all of this while I was trying to find a ride home because it was so very late at night and of course none of this makes sense and I find it very amusing but also a little sad because who doesn't crave a bit of recognition, even a spot of possible glory, or perhaps just a major career change? 

Ah lah. As one grows older, the game changes from "Never have I ever" to "Never will I ever."
Another thing to make peace with. 

Mr. Moon, as I said yesterday, had gone fishing so I had the day to myself, alone, which I do enjoy very much. I did two crosswords, I made a breakfast, I took the trash and went by the post office. I made the bed, I decided to pick the garden. 
The garden at this time of year is still producing. Some things are really just getting going well. Here that would be the okra and the field peas. I did not pick field peas but did pick peppers, tomatoes, delicata squash, green beans, a few cucumbers, okra, and one rather obscenely long Italian eggplant. 




I still have a canning kettle full of green beans which I have done nothing with. NOTHING!

Besides picking I tried to do a bit of weeding. Because of all the mulch my husband put down in the garden, the weeds have not been horrible. 
Up until this point.
The wicked, evil, invasive trumpet vine is coming up everywhere and it's all connected via roots that go deep, deep down into the dirt and which are strong, stout, and endless. Pulling them, cutting them- it really does no good. But one does have to make attempts, right? The other, less noxious weeds are growing knee-high and after about fifteen minutes of pulling I was hot and miserable, reeking of Deet and sweat. So I switched over to the picking, realizing that I could spend hours with the weeding and never get to the gathering. 

I came in the house and cooled down some and decided to deal with the rest of the peaches. I washed and cut them without peeling- I had read in several places online that you really do not have to peel them and since that is 90% of the work of anything you do with peaches, it certainly cut down on the time and effort. The preserves I made earlier were made with pectin which is not how I generally make jams and preserves. They were definitely easy and also tasted fine but it just seemed like a cheat. So I put these in the big pot with their sugar and lemon juice


and cooked them down until they seemed to be the right consistency according to the cold spoon test and the cold saucer test. And then I put them in the sterilized jars and canned them for fifteen minutes. The peels have given them a lovely rosy color and I do not think they will be bothersome. 


From about five pounds of peaches I got four pints of preserves and so now I have seven pints of them in total, although some of them are in half-pint jam jars. 

Will there ever be a time when I have more to write about than dreams and food growing and preservation? 

I can add that Dottie is now only sitting on three eggs. One of the original five cracked, whether she did it herself or not, I do not know, and one of them I found on the floor of the hen house, covered in what looked like, well, mucus, which makes me think that a snake tried to ingest it and either failed or else spat it out for whatever reason. I think it is way too hot for the other three to survive into peep-hood and this is what happened last year with her eggs. I ended up throwing them all out when the Estimated Date of Confinement (or end of confinement in a hen's case) had well and truly passed. The number of eggs I've been getting has decreased with summer's heat. This is normal, not unexpected, and a sort of relief. 

My husband will be home soon. I am sure that he is completely exhausted, sunburned, and a bit cranky. He called me and told me that only one fish was caught all day. 
Bless his heart. 

Bless all our hearts. Summer in North Florida is a test of our strength, our abilities to withstand the heat and the insects, a time to give great thanks to John Gorrie and his inventions which led to air conditioning. A time to dream of rivers, to visit rivers, to try and let go of the expectations we may set for ourselves concerning gardens and yards, exercise and any outdoor accomplishments, to accept that which cannot be changed with as sweet a temperament as can be maintained. 
And sleep. Plenty of sleep. 
I've got that part down pat, obviously. 

Love...Ms. Moon





 

15 comments:

  1. I wrote a long comment, hit the wrong button, lost it. In both senses. Gist: glad you slept!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I admire you. I don't do heat. I don't do air well, either. And I don't like winter with snow and ice. I think I need to go to bed.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Cancer on your chart! Hell no! You don't want that.
    John Gorrie - as I recall, a resident of Apalachicola. In your climate the motivation to invent air conditioning was strong.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'm with you...John Gorrie's invention saves my sanity (what little is left) on a daily basis.

    ReplyDelete
  5. When I was a kid, bottling peaches was a special day when we were sat at the kitchen table, hands scrubbed and had to half peaches (with skin on) and layer them carefully cut side down into the wide jars. My mother would pour boiling water and sugar over them, close the complicated lids and do whatever you do when you bottel stuff involving a weird thing on the cooker. We would eat the bottled peaches on xmas and feast days.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I get weird dreams too sometimes (no more nightmares - that finished when I got divorced - seriously), and it is quite fun trying to decipher them isn't it. And I had to look up trumpet vine as I'd never heard of it. Isn't it strange that such a pretty flower can be deemed a pain in the butt. I know it would probably run riot if you left it, but it is such a lovely flower!

    ReplyDelete
  7. You had better dreams than I did. My dreams were spent looking for toilets to have a poop in. It's shocking how often I dream about toilets.

    We've gone back to normal temperatures again which is nice. The bedroom downstairs has been repainted and cleaned (no spiders) which I appreciate, so we're ready for hot weather again.

    Katie's coming for a visit today with her nephew which she likes to anticipate but doesn't really enjoy while she's here. Oh well.

    Have a lovely day.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I am not a fan of the heat and so grateful for A/C! A lot of my dreams involve my organizing or attending some sort of event. I usually wake up worried and tired because I have been so busy in my dream!
    I have been having a few short naps this week which is unlike me but I am blaming it on the heat and humidity.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I know I'm dreaming and I'm sure they are as weird as usual but I'm not remembering them. only a flash here and there like last night I was on a beach and decided to walk past three men and whatever I was wearing kind of blew up and exposed some flesh and then as I walked away I found I could barely walk, stumbling and stuttering, when I was trying to look cool.

    I made a pie once without skinning the peaches and I could tell the difference. Also I got out there this morning early (for me) and cut back all the gone by purple cone flowers. very sweaty when I came in but the mosquitoes weren't bad.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Your peach preserves look great. I'll be interested to hear how the taste compares -- peels vs. pectin. Those vegetables are amazing! (And amusing.)

    ReplyDelete
  11. Sleep plenty of slee.. my son and my dog (Oscar) have that off pat too. Neither seems to baulk at a very long session - be in night or Siesta time!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Oh those evil trumpet vines! I have found sprouts in the grass six feet from the original plant. I can cut them with the mower but they are a pain. You are wonder woman. I love the still life veggie pictures almost as much as I do your brands. But Mary it is hard to comment. That catches trips me up.no guess it's necessary.

    ReplyDelete
  13. That was supposed to be grands

    ReplyDelete
  14. Congratulations on your performance! And I adore reading about things like gardens and preserves.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Up here, trumpet vine is planted. On purpose. It's strange that something you consider a garden nuisance, others would be paying good money for. I guess that it is something like Steve's burdock plant.

    ReplyDelete

Tell me, sweeties. Tell me what you think.