Life Is Living

Well, we put the jungle back outside today. Just as it was a nice change to bring the plants in and feel as if we were living in a tropical forest, it is now nice to feel the house take a breath as it is cleared out and can breathe freely again. Can you see Maurice in that photo? I think she is happy to have her perch back. 

And the plants? They are SO happy to be outside. I gave them some trimming and drenched them all with the hose. I could almost hear them gulping the water down. I can't water them in the house as fully as I can outside so between that and not getting enough sun, they were looking a bit sad. They will perk right up though.

There they are after their soak. 

I swept the porches this morning because Liz Sparks was coming over. We'd planned to maybe get together for breakfast at the Waffle House or later somewhere for lunch but I just did not think I could handle another meal out. 
How stupid does that sound?
So she came out here and we sat on the front porch which does not get a lot of use, and it was so nice to sit in those rocking chairs and look at the trees and hear the birds and, okay- also the cars and trucks going by. 
Front porch traffic, back porch trains. 
We live a life of rather noisy peace here. 

Since I've seen Liz, she's been to Cuba for a short visit. She felt the same way about Cuba that I did when I went there, which was that we both had so many questions when before we visited, and we had so many more when we left. I think that my trip may have had a slightly more positive spin to it because we went right after Obama had visited and the Rolling Stones had played which were both incredibly symbolic events. And people seemed a little hopeful, things seemed to be opening up some. I get the sense that is no longer true. 

A country so very close to the US in miles, so very, very far from our country in every other way. I remember when Lis and I got back and spent the night in a hotel and there were like four rolls of toilet paper in the bathroom and we felt like the richest girls in the world. There are probably not four rolls of soft, cushy toilet paper in all of Cuba. Liz felt that way when she did her first shopping at Publix when she got back. We have so much. They have so very, very little. 

Liz is also going through an incredibly difficult time with her elderly parents. I won't go into any details but I will say that her entire life right now is taken up with trying to get them into a safe situation as they have become unable to take care of themselves and they are fighting her tooth and nail. From the physical realities of their situation to the infinite number of legal and financial details to attend to, she is doing it all. I can tell she is so very tired. 

I made us a little salad buffet for our lunch. I had left-over shrimp salad and the leftover salad with fruit and nuts from last night and I made a pasta and tuna salad. And then before she left, we went out to the garden and picked a few greens for her to take home. 
She is an amazing woman. I was thinking today how there is absolutely nothing about her that I would change. Not one. There is nothing about her soul or her spirit or her attitude or her sense of humor or her beliefs or her strengths that annoy me in the least. 
Even in the midst of all of this, she is cracking jokes and finding the humor in some very dark situations. 
She also inadvertently gave me some good advice about my yard. I was pointing out some of the invasive plants that are taking over. She actually went to school to study botany (as well as being a registered nurse) and she told me that she's just given up on her yard when it comes to yanking invasive plants. She just weed-eats them, hoping that eventually they'll die. She said she'd tried the layers of cardboard and mulch and that didn't work. 
I asked Mr. Moon this afternoon if I could possibly use his weed-eater. He said I could. I may have to get one of my own though. 

Here's a little part of the yard that had aloe in it when we moved here. 

Didn't know that aloe could become invasive, did you? I certainly did not. And it is prickly as hell and will rip bloody holes into my old thin skin. And all those little white flowers are on the dewberry vines which are a sort of berry not unlike a blackberry, but smaller, and grow on those trailing vines, rather than more upright ones. They, too, are prickly. There is also a Chinese rice plant in the back, and the purple version of the spiderwort thrives in that little piece of hell too. 
I do not think I could weed-eat that bed. 
I am thinking that a small charge of dynamite could possibly do the trick. 

Probably not. 

In more yard news, Mr. Moon and I seem to be having a sort of stand-off about who will pick up the millions of small branches and sticks in the backyard where the Bradford pears were taken out. Neither of us has so much as begun that chore. There's just so much more to do! But today I took the yard cart out and made a small beginning. 

I also looked for bamboo sprouts coming up to kick but did not see any yet. For those of you who do not know what that means, the kicking of the bamboo is not a euphemism. We have a great deal of bamboo in parts of our yard and every spring, runners send up shoots of it and if you are quick, you can kick those shoots over, breaking them from the root and they will quit growing in that one place. If you do not do this, you will soon be living in a bamboo jungle and will need a machete to get from one part of the yard to another. 

Florida just wants to kill us. That's all there is to it. It's not unlike voluntarily living with Maurice to stay here. We must love it for some reason. 

Are you going to watch the State of the Union Address tonight? I am. I feel as if our very democracy depends on how Joe does. 
Oh, please let his many, many years of making speeches help him to get this right. 
Please. 

Love...Ms. Moon