Remember last weekend when I picked my first four eating-sized green beans? Well, here you have today's harvest. It filled a gallon zip-lock bag. And inbetween today and last weekend there were more than enough to add to the chicken and dumplings.
Rattlesnake beans for the win again!What a day. I am so tired. I thought that I might kick-back today, take it easy but my grocery list had grown so long that I was having to use the back side of the index card and also I wanted to return the blender device that I'd bought last Monday. I bought one with way too many features and functions for my needs and purposes and it was insane. So with Owen's help I packed everything back up in the box which was approximately five hundred parts, and I was itching to trade it in on a plain old blender. I'm still thinking I'm going to find my old blender base which will be fine because then I'll have a spare.
But before I went to town I did a few loads of laundry, hung everything on the lines, picked the produce you see above, put clean sheets on the guest room bed in preparation for Lis's visit, and cleaned a toilet.
Pro Tip: A toilet that is used by five grandchildren over the course of a day is going to need cleaning. Badly.
I also checked out my fig tree which I hadn't even bothered doing for weeks because no matter how promising it looks in late spring, by the time it's ripe fig season, all of the fruit on that tree will mysteriously have disappeared, whether to birds or squirrels or drought or whatever, I do not know. However, this year I have a small kernel of hope within me. There is SO much fruit on the tree.
I am hoping that since the huge piece of the old oak tree behind it fell that it is getting enough light to bring those figs into fruition. We shall see. There is very little more delicious than fig and lemon preserves. If I could only get a few small jars of them I would be happy.
So after all of that I got dressed in my shopping-appropriate clothing and went to Costco where I stood in line to return my many-purposes blending device. The woman behind the counter asked if I had ever used it. No, I had not, I assured her. She then went through the entire box and could not find one piece that had been shown on the front of the box but which mysteriously had not been part of the contents. I showed her in the instruction pamphlet that it was not one of the parts listened. She accepted that official illustration as proof. I got a gift card to Costco for the amount I'd paid for the thing and in the course of the next fifteen minutes I'd acquired enough stuff in my basket to have to pay them more money than the gift card covered. This was no surprise. I purchased a different blender which was JUST a blender along with some food items. After I checked out I had to go and have a short chat with the man who is almost always in the liquor store whom I enjoy talking to so very much. I was told last week that he will be retiring in January which sort of devastated me. Talking to Kevin every week or so is about fifty percent of my social life. He is just the nicest guy and we have had some very, very interesting conversations over the years. Everyone loves Kevin. He makes every customer feel special. He really does. He told me today that he's just ready to live his life without the constraints of a work schedule. He's got social security (I did not think he was old enough but he is) and a pension from another job and he's good to go. He is READY to go. I told him I understood but that a whole lot of people were not going to be happy to hear about this.
Well, so it goes.
Then on to the library where I shamelessly eavesdropped again, this time first on a group of about half a dozen women who made a circle in the new fiction area and prayed. They assured their god that they adored and trusted him and loved his son. Repeatedly. This was a library first for me. THEN, I listened to a conversation about genealogy that three women were having. I am starting to get a little bit interested in that topic myself so this was more research than nosyness.
Sure.
And then on to Publix! I swear, everything I wanted was on a shelf that had at least one or two people already standing in front of. I grew a bit testy. But every item on my list was finally crossed off and I checked out.
Drove home, hauled in the groceries, put everything away, got everything off the line, folded it all, put it away, made up our bed with the clean sheets. And now here we are.
Mr. Moon is at some sort of celebratory gathering that I was invited to but I don't know the people involved and besides that, I just don't do things like that anymore. "Tell them I suffer from social anxiety," I tell him when these things arise. It's true. Plus, the laundry wasn't going to get folded and put away by itself, was it?
Jessie and Vergil and August and Levon are on the road. Vergil's in his truck with August, hauling the RV that will be their home for two months, and Jessie's in her car with Levon. May they have safe travels. My heart is traveling with them.
Oh. Here's a picture of Violet and Pansy.
The bebes are growing up so fast. Look at that little comb.
Anyway, love from Lloyd.
Ms. Moon
I wondered about that blender when you first described it! Just got a new (to me) base for my old Cuisinart food processor that I burned out making hummus a couple of months ago. Dennis found it for me on eBay. I love that food processor!
ReplyDeleteI have a Cuisinart food processor too and I adore it. It is one of the main engines of my culinary endeavors.
Deletea plain old blender will do! Puree, liquify, grate. There you have it. I *inherited* Mom's Oster blender after she died...the jar is glass (hard to find nowadays) has 5 speeds......and I love it. I would be exhausted after your day today.....yes, REST tomorrow please! And your figs.....are like my apricots. Had a very small crop......but squirrels got all but 10 of them. Rest well tonight~
ReplyDeleteSusan M
Susan M
All I really want to do with this blender is make smoothies. I use my food processor for everything else. I may use it for my creamy cashew soup though. It is so sad when our fruit disappears, isn't it?
DeleteLooks like you took Boud's implied challenge seriously! I'm tuckered out just reading about it (and maybe because I'm getting to this way past my bedtime...)!
ReplyDeleteLovely chicken photos! Those peeps are growing like weeds (rather like August and Levon).
Chris from Boise
Yes. Baby chicks are like children, only in hyper-drive. You can absolutely see when they reach the teenaged stage. They get all gangly and have feathers growing everywhere and have huge feet and long legs.
DeleteThat little chick is growing so quickly!
ReplyDeleteIt surely is!
DeleteSuper blog
ReplyDeleteThank you.
DeleteGoodness, you have been busy! Put your feet up and relax a bit!
ReplyDeleteHaha! I swear- I can't do it!
DeleteI did a shit load of laundry yesterday too and just have one more set of sheets to wash today. I'm so thankful I have an automatic washer and dryer. I think back on my mum's wringer washer machine and I can't even imagine doing all my laundry like that.
ReplyDeleteMy middle daughter, the one who is driving out to visit us, has covid. Fuck! She's feeling okayish, except for the razor blades in her throat. She's been triple vaccinated and by the time she gets here, won't be contagious anymore. I hope. I'm willing to risk it.
My daughter in laws' grandson and her mom will now be joining us for Miss Katie's birthday celebration next weekend. Sometimes it feels like we're collecting lost souls and I'm alright with that.
Oh Lord. Razor blades in the throat is the worst! I hope she's all healed up by the time she reaches you.
DeleteI think that lost soul families can be the sweetest families. I love that you are so welcoming.
And hell yes- thank goodness for washing machines! I think of how women used to have to do laundry in big tubs that they'd fill from a pump or a spring and then heat the tubs over a fire and use a scrub board to get the clothes clean in the lye soap that they'd made themselves. I bet they didn't change clothes as often as we do, much less bed linens.
Three days in a row I had to get up early and go somewhere and be gone for half the day or longer. I'm not going anywhere today. I still have my very old blender which I really only use a couple of times a year. Just give me simple one purpose devices.
ReplyDeleteGlad you rectified the blender situation (and Costco didn't dispute your return). I'm not sure I've ever seen a prayer circle in a library. But it's a public place, so why not.
ReplyDeleteThese ladies appeared to have some sort of issue that they were going to research and were asking their Lord's guidance to direct them. Maybe. I'm not sure. They certainly were not shy to speak their prayers loudly and proudly.
DeletePrayer circles, ewwww.
ReplyDeleteToilets need cleaning after one use of boy children I have found. You are a champion Grandmother! It might be time to show them how it is done...Leave some squirty stuff along side the loo and paper towels.
Well, they were quite a bunch, those ladies. And serious prayers.
DeleteI'm sure that Owen could scrub a toilet and he probably does at home. Gibson too. Not sure I trust the littles with that stuff yet.
You have earned the rest, I got tired just reading how much you got done! That Chick is getting mature fast and I like the Name you chose so assume it is a Hen?
ReplyDeleteI am thinking that Pansy may be a rooster which will probably not work. Although actually, the chicken will not care what its name is.
DeleteI bet those people praying in a circle at the library was because they'd spotted some evil books. Hahaha. I can't stand prayer circles.
ReplyDeleteI remember my mum using a tub and washboard, but with storebought Sunlight soap which came in yellow blocks that I still buy today to hand scrub and stains before things go into the machine. My blender has a glass jug too, I hate the way plastic jugs get all scratched up. I use it for summertime milkshakes and smoothies and for pumpkin/sweetpotato soup in winter
ReplyDeleteI know how the heart travels with our loved ones who are away from us. Soon August and Levon will be mountain children again. What an enriched upbringing they are having in terms of varieties of environments and breadth of family.
ReplyDeleteDid you look for your blender top in the freezer? I lost mine and found it weeks later in the freezer. I had put it in there to make a cold drink later and forgot I put it there.
ReplyDelete