Word And Picture Splatter

Here's Magnolia eating her fish and macaroni and cheese dinner. It all turned out quite well, including all the vegetables I cut up to go with it. Raw vegetables with ranch dressing seem to be the young ones' favorite vegetable side dish and that's fine with me. Sometimes I do the same for Glen and me when I become weary of the same five green vegetables and/or salads. Glen's as happy with it as the kids are and I really don't care one way or another. Raw cucumbers and carrots and cherry tomatoes or steamed broccoli? 
Pass the raw vegetables, please. I think if we call that a deconstructed salad it will get more respect. 
And by the way, those items of clothing on the old chest behind her were on the back of a dining room chair waiting for some mending assistance. That chest is sort of a catch-all for projects in process and art supplies and god knows what else. 

Maggie was a very, very good houseguest. After supper Boppy made her a purple cow which she enjoyed and then she took a bath in the big old clawfoot tub in my bathroom. After she was all cleaned and pajamaed and liberally patted down with my Caswell-Massey Elixir of Love dusting powder, she got into the bed and allowed me to read her two books. We read "The Owl and the Pussycat" in tribute to her mama's new tattoo and then we read "The Relatives Came" which she says I've never read to her before and I suppose she's right but Lord, I have failed her. 
She turned off her light at eleven which is early for her and she got up around 8:45 which is also early for her. The Hartmann's are taking summer vacation seriously. I think Owen stays up all night and sleeps most of the day but he's a teenager and that's what teenagers tend to do when they can get away with it. 
This morning Maggie wanted her pancakes and bacon and a cheesy omelet which I had first told her I wasn't going to make because pancakes and scrambled eggs should be enough, along with the bacon but of course I caved and made her a cheesy omelet which she did not like because it was TOO CHEESY. 
Sigh.
Mr. Moon finished it up for her. He's thoughtful and helpful like that. 

I washed the sheets and towels while she was still here and hung them on the line. I asked her if she wanted to help me hang laundry but shockingly, she said "No thanks." 
While I was doing that though, she got out some of the old toys and I was so happy when I found her in the Glen Den, playing with Lincoln logs and the little forest animals AND the Fisher Price farm. 

I had asked her if she still played with her dolls and she said "No, not really," which about broke my heart. 
I guess it's a lot to ask of a ten year old to still want to play with dolls. 
However, when I found that she had done this, I was more than a little thrilled.

She'd found Babar and Zippy and put them both in the high chair and I swear, I could cry. I don't know if she's still pretending or not and I know that if she is, it's not anything like the deep pretending she used to do where she'd get so involved with her doll and animal characters that I would think she was talking to me and when I'd ask, "What, honey?" she'd say, "Nothing. I'm just playing.

Playing. What could be more beautiful to a grandmother? To know that the child is capable of creating and living in different worlds, populated by stuffed animals and dolls has been one of the best parts of my life at this stage for sure and for certain. Is it any wonder that I am so very, very loathe to pass on the toys and the high chair? 
And the books! I was in the library today and while I was waiting to self check-out, a mother with three children was checking their books out and one of the books was "Danny and the Dinosaur." I have a copy of that book in my library and all of my kids and some of my grandkids have loved it. It was published in 1958 so it's hardly a new book and I was flabbergasted that not only did the library have a copy, but that someone was checking it out to read to her children. 
So how can I get rid of the children's books? 

Well. Eventually. Eventually I will have the strength and wisdom to pass on at least the toys. As for the books and the high chair- well, maybe not. Perhaps by the time I die, one of the grands will be having children of their own and they will want these things. 

Or is this just a grandmother's martini-fueled fever dream? 

I took Magnolia home and got to see Lauren and Gibson. Owen? Yeah, still in bed. Oh well. I've seen him this week and gotten some hugs so I'm good. Then I went by Hank and Rachel's to drop off Hank's birthday card and the "flat gift" within it. "Flat gift" is what we call money folded into an envelope. Or gift cards. You know. I didn't give it to him on Wednesday, the actual birthday, because somehow, between home and the restaurant I could not find it which caused a small amount of panic. I found it later underneath the front seat, safe and sound. 

I went to the library, I came home, I snapped more beans, I went out to the garden and took a few pictures. 

One of the candy-cane zinnias I planted is blooming and I could not be more delighted. I could, however, be more delighted with my old phone camera. I think I'm going to put this new one on ice and switch back to the old one. It is possible to take extreme closeups with this new one but it takes so much fiddling AND two hands and who has time for that mess? I do like the shadows of the open disk florets. I had to look that up. I would have just called them those little flowers within the flower. 

Oh, Zinnias! What joy you bring me. 

A not-too bad shot of a cucumber vine creating a cucumber flower. 
I think that's what it's doing. It could be trying to trap garden fairies and eat them for all I know. Whatever it truly is, it's pretty gnarly, isn't it? 

And another photo of a cucumber blossom. 

I got the sheets off the line, I made up the bed. I folded another load of laundry I'd put in the dryer and put that away. 
And I admired my new puzzle which got delivered today.

I cannot wait to get started and yet, at the same time, I want to work on my hibiscus. What an abundance of riches! 

I did have patching Mr. Moon's oldest overalls on the agenda but after studying them more closely, I have decided that no, they are done. There is no reason to attach good fabric onto completely worn out fabric. At this point it's no longer just one tear or rip, it's every square inch of the dear old things that are either holey already or trembling on the verge. 

Hell. The patches need patches. 
RIP you good and faithful servant. I shall cut off the hardware and then I do believe we should give these overalls a fine cremation on the burn pile pyre. 

Happy Friday, y'all. Mr. Moon's at the coast to spend the night with his buddy Alan so they can get an early morning start for a day of fishing on the Gulf. And so, alas, I have had to make my own martini. 
Luckily, it's not that hard.

Love...Ms. Moon