Pretty Darn Good For A Sunday

When people ask me what I write about on my blog I never know quite what to say so I usually say, "My life."
That's a pretty broad description though, isn't it? I write about the things in my life, the things that make up my life, the people who are in my life. I write about food and politics and religion and music and books and the little community I live in here in North Florida. I talk about the hard things that happened to me as a child and the things that have saved my life over and over again. I write about my yard and what I do in it, what I see in it. I write about my garden and what pleasure it brings me to grow food for us to eat. I write about saints and assholes and demons, mental illness, worries, fears, and things I hope make people laugh and I write about my cat and my kidney stones and what I make for supper. I write about marriage and my husband and I spend way too much time talking about some of these things. 
Oh well. 
I almost never know what I'm going to write about when I sit down at my laptop. I'll usually have a photo that often triggers a thought, a memory, an experience, an idea, an opinion. When my life is very quiet and I am spending a lot of time at home, the photos can become uninspiring, to say the least. I use pictures of Maurice way too often because she is always here and when I am alone, she is my companion, the being I talk to and cuddle with, the pain in my ass, a comfort to sleep with. 
And I took the picture up top there today when she was nested on the sheets I'd used to wrap my plants when we got the freeze last week. I'd brought them in and set them in the green chair with the crazy scarf I got at the hospice resale store because there was no way I wasn't bringing that home. She napped there for hours. I believe she knew she looked good. Green is a beautiful color for redheads and gingers, don't you think? Not to mention the jungle theme going on which I am sure she believes she's a part of. 

Today has been a much better day than yesterday. I have felt reasonably content and happy and open to life in ways that I definitely was not yesterday. I am so glad. I would like to say here that when I discuss sexual abuse or being triggered or any of that stuff, I am definitely not looking for sympathy. I've been living with this shit since I was nine years old and sometimes things happen that bring the emotions back in full but I am always and forever aware that I have learned to cope and soon enough the mechanisms by which I do that kick back in and I feel better. I am also aware that there are a horrifying number of women, and also men, who were abused as children who live with these issues, some so damaged and who are not able for whatever reason to get the help they need or perhaps do not respond to any sort of treatment, whose lives are an absolute nightmare. I am one of the luckiest survivors, I think. 
I just happen to talk about it. 
But don't cry for me, Argentina! I have lived through it, learned to live with it, and have a pretty amazing life. 

So that's that for now. 

Now this is a pleasing photo, isn't it? 
Hahahahahahaha! 
Yesterday and this afternoon I got out the garden cart, my trowel, gloves, and clippers and got back to work on the bed in front of the fence to try and clear it of crocosmia which we all know is my main hobby and also, impossible to achieve, thus ensuring the fact that I'll always have something to do here. We are so dry that the dirt is powdery and easy to dig through, probably because of all the many, many years of leaf mulch. So I trowel and then go through the loosened dirt like a miner looking for gold in a stream except that I am looking for those stupid bulbs in the dirt. I am now wondering if I might plant border grass in these areas which also takes over spaces and can choke out almost anything. It can also be cut like grass so it can look fairly tidy. Replacing one invasive plant with another doesn't sound like the wisest thing to do but needs must, as you Brits say. Well, I think you say that. 

I washed the duck today as well as the quilt. It's not going to be as cool at night for the next week or so and I may have to take one of those things off the bed. I do like a plethora of covers but I don't like waking up and feeling like I've been miniaturized and am roasting in an Easy Bake Oven. 
I have a story about an Easy Bake Oven but I'm not in the mood to tell it tonight. It is not a happy story and so I shall leave it for another time. 

Here are two pictures that I took while working outside. They are both of trees across the street from me and what I was looking at when I raised my head from the dirt and roots and bulbs I was so focused on. 

I am so very, very grateful to live in a place where I am surrounded by such holy beings. 
And also, to have neighbors like the man whose name I think is John Henry who drove by on his green bicycle today, holding a Slushie, who called out, "How are you today?" and I said, "I'm GOOD! How are you?" And he said, "I'm fine!" and he smiled as bright as could be, waved his Slushie-holding hand and pedaled on down the street to his place. 

It's a decent life. Not always too exciting but often quite pleasant. 
And oh! Levon called me today. We had a good conversation. He got to see a white tiger yesterday and they are very rare! I know this because he told me. 
Also, basketball is going well. I was glad to hear these things as reported by my youngest grandson who was born a full grown man in a baby costume. His mother reports that he is pushing every one of her buttons. I assure her that one of these days he is going to be a mama's boy and worship the ground she walks on. 
She is not convinced. Time will tell. 

Love...Ms. Moon