Back Out On The Street

 

I'm sure some of you have noticed that I have not been taking my usual walks for a long, long time and I really haven't been able to figure out why. I have either been a runner or a walker most of my adult life. That's just what I did. And I was faithful about it. When the children were really young and couldn't be left alone, I'd get up before the rest of the household, get dressed, put on my shoes, and walk out the door. Often in the dark. I'd get in my miles, come home, drink coffee, and then start the rest of my day when the kids and the man got up. I look back on that now and wonder how I did it. 
I do remember that in those days, naps were the what gave me life and there were many mornings when the promise of getting back in bed for a nap later in the day was the only thing that got me out of bed. 
When we moved here, twenty two years ago, I figured out routes to take in the woods and on the highway, down country roads, and just around Lloyd. For awhile I was walking a road that I had to drive to and park to access. I was doing pretty good milage then, four or five miles a day at my most dedicated. 
And then, for whatever reason, I just started slacking off. The heat got to be too much and I stubbornly refused to get up early and get out there quickly. I just had too much to do in the mornings! Most of which involved reading blogs, commenting, and reading other things online and then doing a crossword. And of course I had to eat breakfast and finally I'd put on my sports bra and shorts and T-shirt by which time it was already at least 85 degrees if not in the 90's. In the summers, at least. 
And then there was the kidney stone which prevented me from walking for awhile and then...
Oh, who knows? 
I just could not force myself to get out and walk. 

But last night, for no apparent reason, I decided that it would be a good thing for me in so many ways to get up and stop fucking around and put those shoes on and just walk out the door. 
Just walk out the door. 
Simplest thing in the world. 
And the bizarre thing is- I did it. 
I didn't walk very far but I spent about forty minutes doing it and I wasn't just strolling. I wasn't speed-walking by any means, but there was no lallygagging. 
And I really enjoyed it. There wasn't anything new going on that I could see but every season brings different blooms and the sky changes minute by minute. I've been missing that sort of thing, that subtle and undramatic cycle of everything around us that is only truly noticeable when you're on foot. 
It wasn't noticeably different than when I walked before, as in I didn't feel that I was completely out of shape, although I probably am. This evening, though, I will admit to being tireder than usual but I also did a tiny, tiny bit of garden work in the heat when I got home and then I cleaned the refrigerator which, if you do it properly, requires some physical effort. So there's that too. I am not a completely inactive being but I would like to become more active once again. 

Those morning glories up top there are growing in my neighbor Carol's yard and you can see the blurry pink of the crepe myrtle behind it. These two blooms are some of the things I've missed the most. The blue of the morning glories is simply...a glory. Isn't it? 

Does that not look as if it's emitting its own light? A tiny sun, glowing through its own celestial blue sky. 

I passed the fally-down house which, oh my Lord, finally, after all these years of watching as it has grown closer and closer to becoming one with the earth, is just about there. 
I did not see Abe but right about where he lives I crossed paths with a neighbor I see walking past the house sometimes. 
He greeted me and said, "Haven't seen you out in a long time. Where you been?"
"I've just been a lazy slob," I told him. "But I want to start walking again."
He nodded and told me that he, too, has not been very faithful about it but wants to get back into the habit. And then he asked me how I've been, but not in a polite-conversation way. In a I'd-truly-like-to-know-way. Like he's been concerned. I told him that I was good, really good and asked him how he's been. He told me that he's been good too. 
"All right," I said. "Let's do this thing! Let's get out here and walk!" 
He agreed that was a good idea and then he went on his way and I went on mine. I do not know this man's name nor does he know mine but there is a connection here. There just is. 
I was a little way farther down the road when a car passed me and honked, and a guy I didn't recognize waved his arm out of his window. I think it was probably another neighbor who knows me from all those years of walking. 
Those two encounters made me feel so good. I am sure that when we first moved here I was looked at askance. Lloyd is not exactly filled with what you might call truly health-conscious people. Listen- people used to stop their vehicles and ask me quite sincerely if I needed a ride. 
But that was a long time ago. They are used to me now and have noted my absence. This is a comfort to me. 
Now. Will I get up and walk tomorrow? I surely hope so.

I made another list when I got home. It has six things on it and I only managed to get one half of one thing done. The item was "Clean refrigerator and freezer."
The refrigerator was a fucking mess. Just nasty. I mean, I doubt the health department would shut me down but it was truly overdue for a cleaning and that I did. This involves taking out all the food, throwing away anything that needs throwing away, pulling out all the shelves and drawers, washing them and drying them, putting them back in the refrigerator, and then putting all the food back on the shelves and in the drawers. 
At one point I told Glen that from here on out, whenever the refrigerator needs cleaning, we just need to buy a new one. 
"Good idea," he said. 
He didn't mean it. 

By the time I'd done all of that, I had a lot of garbage due to the things I'd thrown away and although I thought I really should take it to the dump, I just didn't have the energy. It's bagged and ready to go tomorrow. 
I was also going to clean the freezer and although the most stubborn part of me insisted that I finish the job, achieve my goal, the human 72-year old woman part of me insisted that nah, that too would wait. 
And it will. 

Mr. Moon has driven up to the cabin. Tom's final illness and death and the aftermath of that has kept him here, dealing with all the things that have needed dealing with. There is a lot more to do but as with the garbage and the freezer, it will all still be here when he gets back. He's just going to mow and do a little relaxing. I hope that involves fishing because I know he needs some of that. 
It's odd, not having him here. He'll be back tomorrow so it's not going to be a prolonged situation. 

And tomorrow I plan on going to the river with Lily and her babies and Jessie and her babies. We are going to picnic. I am looking forward to this with all my heart. 

You know I had to take a picture of my refrigerator. Here it is. 

Yes. Yes. I am a bit of a food hoarder. And yes, yes. I am the condiment queen. And I don't even use the salad dressings except for once in a blue moon. 

Sigh.

For your viewing pleasure. Should you need a little joy in your life.

Love...Ms. Moon

Still Obsessed With Food. Obviously

Last night's supper. I think this is becoming a feature here at Bless Our Hearts. I see that my placement was poor when it came to the avocados and eggs. 
Presentation has never been my strong suit. 
But it sure was good. 
On the other hand...let us discuss the bread I tried to make. I mean, I did make it but there were problems. 
I've been getting a lot of recipes on social media for recipes with cottage cheese in them and the purpose of cottage cheese in food is to up the protein in them. You know how it is- every few years we're told there are certain nutrients that are truly the important ones and right now, the trendy winners are protein and fiber. 
Am I right? 
Well, I don't really worry about not getting enough protein but I thought I'd give the cottage cheese in a baked good a try and so I made up a bread dough with bread flour, yeast, ground flax seeds (fiber!), old-fashioned oatmeal, and cottage cheese. Oh, and honey. I made the dough in the food processor where I make a lot of my bread dough, especially things like pizza crusts and focaccia. 
I processed all of this until it was a good consistency and then I kneaded it by hand a few times and set it to rise. It was a lovely dough. Quite punchy and so forth. It rose nicely, I gave it a second rise. Again, good rising, and then I baked it in a Le Creuset pot which I'd sprayed with some avocado spray. I put it in a hot oven and it looked great. It rose a bit more in the heat of the oven and browned well. When it came time for me to check it for doneness, I tried to do what I always do which is to take the loaf from whatever I'm baking it in and tap the bottom. If it sounds hollow- it's done. If it doesn't, it ain't.
However. There was no easy removal of this loaf. It had stuck to the sides and bottom of this pan with a crust at least a third of an inch thick. It took a knife, a spatula, and a lot of work to get that thing out of there and I ended up putting it back in the oven on a piece of aluminum foil because it was obviously not going to do well if I put it back in the pan. 
Well, I didn't bake it long enough. That was one problem, the other problem being the extremely rough exteriors of the bread. 
However, the parts that did get baked were lovely and delicious and I am going to try this again but I will be using a different baking vessel. 

Oh well. La-di-dah. 

I ended up going to town today to meet up with Jessie and the boyos for lunch and a Costco shopping. We asked Lily if she could go on her break but that wasn't happening until 2:00 so she told us to go on without her. The boys chose Chow Time, of course, and as always, it was NOT BAD! At all. I had boiled shrimp, some hot and sour soup, a few green beans and some cabbage, a piece of baked salmon, a bite or two of chicken and the same of beef. With a little rice. 
It was perfect! 

And then on to Costco. Now y'all- I don't think I'd left Lloyd in at least three or four days so Costco was a bit of a neuro-blast for me. So much going on there. And, two very energetic boys who bounced about like Energizer Bunnies. At one point, they begged Jessie to let them sample the Liquid Death drink. Liquid Death is an energy drink and Jessie and I both said, "NO!" at the same time. They were cool with that. They were actually very good little guys and entertained me well. I tried to get them to pose in front of a Halloween decoration which was a dracula-looking guy who moved and made scary noises. 
Here's what happened. 

That just about says it all. And we need to get Levon on the stage. Immediately. He is such a natural born performer and entertainer. 
And check this out.

I don't even know what to say. He really is going to be taller than me before I know it. 

All right. Here's a picture of their Boppy when he was probably about the same age as August. I'd say ten or eleven. Or maybe even twelve. 

I believe we can safely surmise that Levon and August are direct descendants of Glen Moon. 

By the way, Glen hates that picture so don't tell him I posted it. I love it.

And so it goes and so it went today. 

Here's the last picture.

The Seminole Pumpkin vines that are taking over our universe here in Lloyd. See that tendril on the left side there? It's heading right towards a boat parked in the yard and obviously, by tomorrow the vines are going to be climbing Tom's Subaru and will also be on and in the boat. I have got to cut it back. Again. Despite its obvious inability to know when to stop growing, I am not finding many pumpkins. I think perhaps we're not getting the number of pollinators we usually do. I'm not seeing much action on the basils, either, but I keep telling myself that they're not really putting out that many blooms yet. 
The pumpkins, however, are. 
I hope I'm wrong. I really, really do. 

Meanwhile...

Love...Ms. Moon

Uh...Well, It's Sunday

Here we have the what-did-Ms. Moon-make-for-supper-last-night feature. I am proud of this one. I made the pizza from the crust up and it has a bunch of our peppers, both bell and clown, sliced very thinly, onions, mushrooms, some of our tomatoes, black olives and the proper cheeses. We ate it with little dribbles of pesto on top that I made yesterday from some of the basil crop. 
Was it good? 
Oh yeah. 
I was so afraid when I started taking Zepbound that I would lose my interest in cooking and in food in general but that has not turned out to be true. It was at first, a little bit anyway. Not anymore though. I just eat less of foods I still love to make and eat. 
Dreams CAN come true. 

Another day of rain here in Lloyd and in the entire area for that matter. Another day of being relatively inert which does not suit me well. Of course I could have spent it doing something like scrubbing mildew off walls but where's the fun in that, I ask you? I worked on my puzzle some which led me to a bit of despair in that this is going to take me forever. My brain just does not function visually and spatially the way it should in order to do jigsaw puzzles. So why do them? 
Well, good question. I get very caught up in them. Time passes in a different manner. I can sit down, begin to concentrate, and before I know it, an hour has passed in which time I've probably found five pieces to fit in.
Sigh.
Perhaps I feel like this is good for my brain. Sometimes I feel like all of that advice about doing crosswords and things like that to prevent dementia is a bunch of malarky. 
Now there's a word you don't hear very often these days. But it's a good one. 
Really, though, who cares if it takes me a year to finish this puzzle? Or a year and a half? Or whatever. There are no jigsaw puzzle police who are going to come and arrest me if I can't finish it in the approved amount of time. I have no teacher grading me. So I'll just enjoy it as it goes. Especially on my new puzzle board which continues to delight me. 

So, one of my dear and darling nursing school ladies sent us all a picture that had been taken twenty years ago when we'd all gotten together at Weeki Wachee Springs with our children. My kids were already grown but theirs were all still young things. But the picture made me laugh. 

Look at what I was wearing. Cargo pants and a black tank top. 
Here's what I was wearing when I got the picture. 

I do believe that in the picture from 20 years ago, I was wearing women's linen cargo pants, not men's cotton cargo pants. 
Whatever. 

And for fun, here's a picture of all the kids together. 

Actually, one or two are missing there, including May who had also come with us. Lily and Jason were newly married, I think. 
Here's what Hank remembers from that trip in response to Jessie saying she had no memory of it: Really? We all went down and stayed at the motel right across from weeki wachee. I think we also ate supper in a restaurant next to a monkey island. 
Yes. Exactly. And this makes me feel better because the kids are always talking about things from their childhoods and I'm like, What? Are you sure that happened?

Anyway, we four ladies are planning our this-year trip. We can't afford to waste a year these days. Not with time flying the way it does and the fact that we all realize we do not have all the time left in the world. 

So that was a fun little skip down memory lane. 

Here's something I've been meaning to show you for awhile. 

That's a red emerald philodendron, I think. I made a cutting of one I had and rooted it and then stuck it in that very, very small pot. 

I may have fertilized it once. I water it when I remember. And look at that dang thing! I bet if I stretched it out it would be over ten feet long. And here's the thing- the plant I made the cutting off of is on the porch, getting a little more light, but not too much light, in a pot far more appropriate as to size and it looks like death hungover. 

What can I say? 

That's about it from me today. 

Oh! I haven't shared a picture of everyone's favorite (increasingly) insane orange cat recently so here's one for you.

For the first time in weeks she came and slept with me last night and was still there when I got up. She stayed right there for hours and who could blame her? 

Oh, the Weatherfords made it home last night! Hurray! And they've had a good rainy day to get things done inside which no doubt needed doing. 

I myself will try to do something more interesting tomorrow. 
No promises, though. 

Love...Ms. Moon

Time, Space, Crows, And Human Life On Earth

Eventually the crows are going to let me get close enough to take a decent picture. I think this one is the one I call The Scout. He's the largest and always seems to be the one who does the reconnaissance missions. I could be wrong. It's not really that easy to identify crows. Or at least for me. 
They fly about over the tree stumps where I put their mealworms every morning and if that doesn't work, they caw at me, or as I say,  yell at me. They may even land and search around to see if by any chance I have fed them and they've just missed it. 
I go out with my little container of mealworms and whistle the same whistle that I used to use on my cats. Maurice doesn't need that whistle. She's generally either in the house, on the back porch, or right outside, defending her territory from her doppelgänger and the pretty black cat that shows up now and then.
By the time I've put food on all six of the Bradford Pear Tree stump tables, they're on the branches nearest the cafe and urging me to hurry up and get back in the house so they can eat in peace. I still have not received one tiny shiny thing, not so much as a shred of aluminum foil, and I may never get anything at all. 
It's cool. I just like looking at them. They're so interesting. 

It's rained most of the day which has been lovely. It cooled way down and after I got caught in the rain while I was in the garden and stayed there until I'd finished what I was doing, thus getting rather wet, I was actually cold and had to put a sweater on. I've still got it on. But hey! It's 87 degrees on the back porch where I am. 
Brrr...
I love it. 

I've been mostly lazy and yes, giving myself grace about it. I finished up a few French knots on a patch I'd sewn on a linen shirt that I've been patching and doing visible mending on for probably three years. On and off. 
Mostly off. 
And I realized- I was done! 

I got this shirt years and years ago at a Goodwill and it was my faithful companion until the fabric on the yoke became as thin as a spider web. I mostly used it as a bathing suit cover-up or something to put on when the temperatures dip into the high 80's. Like now. 
So it's in the wash and will be ready to go back into service. 
After I finished that, I started back to hemming my cheesecloth rags. I've been ignoring that project for awhile and we are in dire need of more of them. 
DIRE, I tell you! 
While I did these things, I watched more of The Bear, of course. I am falling in love with some of the characters, as one does as they develop. I remember texting Hank once when I was watching Reservation Dogs to tell him that I loved Willie Jack so much it made my heart hurt. 
He understood. 
Actually, all of those characters made my heart hurt with love but Willie Jack the most. 
The main character of The Bear is played by Jeremy Allen White and he has the kind of beauty that can only be seen after awhile. Do you know what I mean? If you just saw the guy buying a bag of potato chips and a six-pack of beer, you'd think, "He's rather odd-looking." He is not what we would call traditionally handsome. He's no Brad Pitt. He's no George Clooney, but he has...something. 
Many woman are like this too. You have to really shed your notions of beauty and see that there is far more to it than what we see on the surface. 
Beauty is NOT skin deep and Brad Pitt will never be as beautiful as Keith Richards is at the age of 82. 

That is not what I planned to write about. As usual. 

Glen spent a lot of the day being annoyed with himself for spending too much time in his chair. "It's killing me!" he says. 
"Hmmmm..." I say. 
I think a day of rest may be a damn good thing for him but I understand. Neither one of us is really made for sitting all day long. 
He got out of his chair though to work on the lamp he brought home the other day. 

Now that is a good-looking man. Beautiful in all the ways. 

We need to get some new glass shades as two of the ones on it were broken. They are easily found although right now we are throwing around the idea of getting green ones or pink ones. 
We shall see.

Here she is, naked and unadorned. 

The Weatherfords are on their way home. They didn't leave North Carolina until around noon so it's going to be a very long day and part of a night. I can't believe they'll be back in Florida. That must be such a difficult transition. The North Carolina mountains to North Florida. From living in a small camper to living in a regular sized house. From having the mountains as your backyard to having a...backyard...as your backyard. From having a mother/grandmother, sister/aunt, brother-in-law/uncle, and cousins as your only neighbors to having people who, although they may be very nice people, are not related to you at all for neighbors. 
Well. In some ways, it's pretty darn cool to be exposed to both worlds, to get to know all the different family members so well. 

And school will soon begin again. August (and Maggie) will be in their last year of elementary school. I cannot believe this and yet, it is true. Levon, the baby of the family (haha!) will be in third grade. Owen is a Junior in high school? I think. And Gibson is a freshman in high school, marching in the band. 
How did all of this happen? 

It's life. Just life. Why we are so amazed at how fast the years fly by is a mystery to me, just as why we are so mystified and shocked when death occurs. Or when we know we're getting near that inevitable portal into such a change of energy. Change or exchange? 
We just don't know, do we? 

It's all pretty much a fancy dance. Just as you learn the steps to one phase of the dance, the music changes and there we are. 
Or here we are. 
As Karen said, we are wisest to just roll with whatever is happening. Kids growing up, us growing older and then old. 
Life. There is no stopping it. Until it stops. 
That's pretty much it, I think, summed up in a few short words. 
Meanwhile, the planet keeps on circling the sun, the galaxies and stars keep on moving and whirling and traveling and dancing their own fancy dances. 
Isn't it amazing? 
I think so.

Love...Ms. Moon 

Just A Little Bit

 

I only took one photo today and it's not exactly artistic or pretty or funny or anything like that so I decided to go check out my blog post from a year ago and I discovered I'd taken a picture of another over-the-top crazy lamp. I had been shopping at an absurd antique mall and that was one of the absurd antique items they had for sale there. 
It's rather amusing to me that exactly a year ago I posted a picture of another lamp made in some time frame where too much was just enough. 
I did not make up that phrase. Bill Wharton, aka The Sauce Boss, did. Do a blog search for him if you want to know more. 
Anyway, it must be the season of the lamp. 

I don't have anything of importance to discuss this evening, or get off my chest or just generally write about in order to get some clarity on how I feel about something. I was going to make a quick-quick run to Publix and come back to get some more yard work done or something in the productive vein but I guess I did all I needed to of that yesterday. I did go to Publix but it took me awhile. I needed more than I thought I did or actually, once I got there I thought I needed more than I had written down on my list. 

When I got home and had put all the groceries away I sat my ass down on the couch with a basketful of field peas and made myself happy by shelling them and watching another episode and a half of "The Bear." The more I watch this show, the more I like it and I am already suffering from pre-grief about how I will feel when I've watched it all. Knowing me, I may just watch it again. How many times did I watch "Reservation Dogs?" And the one picture I took today? 

I used this along with some smoked turkey when I cooked my pinto beans today. 
It was righteous. So were the okra and tomatoes. The cornbread too. 

Happy Friday, ya'll. 

Love...Ms. Moon

Taking Care Of Business

The star hibiscus has another bloom and I worship at its feet. 
I mean, you know- metaphorically. There are some things that are simply so stunning and so lovely that it's impossible to ever truly take them for granted. This flower is one of them. 
Another pragmatic miracle as I like to call these things. 

I've had such a great day. When I woke up I told Mr. Moon that I was going to make a list of things I wanted to do today, simply for the pleasure of crossing them all off as I did them. 
"Just for fun," I said. 
Somehow I knew that today was going to be productive. I think this feeling is part of my sudden and unexplainable good attitude. 
Of course, this being me, I do have a dark fear that having discovered this weird feeling of happiness, I will soon be diagnosed with a terminal illness and I'll feel even worse than I would have because I JUST STARTED BEING HAPPY! 
So unfair. 
Well, that could happen. 
Meanwhile, I did make my list and I did check off everything on it. 

And honestly, I just like to make lists with a fountain pen. 

So yes, I cleared and cleaned off my back porch table where I live and washed the tablecloth and towels and other laundry. I put a clean tablecloth back on the table and threw away a bunch of clutter that had been taking up space. I also got rid of a bunch of spiderwebs under the table. For some reason this year, we have a lot of very, very almost fluffy spider webs. I don't know how else to describe them. They are nothing like the webs the golden orb weavers make. I haven't even seen the spiders. They're almost invisible and they seem to like to live under tables and chairs and the webs feel mysterious and annoying when you brush up against them with a leg or a foot. So I made a concerted effort there and swept under the table and around it. 

I took the trash to the trash place, I stopped at the post office, and I took all of the paper and cardboard that we stash in the pantry out to the burn pile. I had thought that Mr. Moon and I had an agreement wherein I would deal with the household trash and he would deal with the burn pile stuff. 
I seem to have thought wrong. 
At our age we appear to have what I might call "selective memory" issues. He has no problems dealing with all of these legal issues that Tom left behind but when it comes to remembering that he's supposed to take out the paper and cardboard, he simply cannot. 
Ah well. Not a big deal. 
I poured clog destroying chemicals down my shower drain because it has become more than a puddle in there when I shower. It's like a shallow pool for my feet. Every night when I take my shower I vow to remember to do that the next day and it's been about a week now that I've forgotten every day until I get in the shower the next night. And you can't just pour that shit in and leave it. You have to flush it with hot water after about fifteen minutes so that requires some attention. 
But things are flowing nicely in there again. 
And lastly but not leastly, I watered my front porch plants. Such an easy thing to do but I don't enjoy wrestling with the hose situation. 
Good Lord. That's not even worthy of being a first world problem. 

What I really wanted to do after checking all the things off my list was to do more clearing of the chenille plant and other invasives by the side of the house where I was working the other day. However, that area was in the sun by the time I got around to it so I decided to tackle the bed to the right of the driveway, aka dirt entrance to the property, which I spent so many hours working on last year to what was obviously no avail because this is what it looks like. 

The crocosmia is worse than ever but my determination is strong. As you can see, there are other weeds growing in there and I got out my shovel and dug some of the larger ones up and then got on my knees with my trowel to once again battle the roots and bulbs of the crocosmia. I was quite surprised and delighted to find that for some mysterious and unexplained reason, the dirt in there is now soft and so easy to pull roots from. Is this because of all the rain we've had or is it because of the work I did on it last year? 
Who knows? 
Not me. 
But I got this much done in just a few hours. 

It would have all been an absolute pleasure (you know how much I love to weed) if it hadn't been 95 degrees in the shade. I had sweat rolling off my face and everything I was wearing was soaked but I still managed to enjoy myself. I also discovered some crepe myrtle plants which had come up from the root system of the one I planted on the other side of the fence. I had no idea that crepe myrtles spread like this and guess what? This can result in dense thickets if left unattended, according to what I'm reading online. 
Oh great. Now the crepe myrtles are going to become invasive. 
Well, I need to keep an eye on them, obviously and I will try not to leave them unattended. 
And I also have this. 

It's hard to tell but that's a loblolly pine, also known by about ten other names including "southern pine." I've been watching it for over a year now. It is totally a volunteer, quite possibly planted there by a winged seed from a nearby adult. It was just a tiny sprig when I first sighted it and I have carefully weeded around it, mostly just to see what would happen. It's gone through drought and being choked by the crocosmia and yet, has survived and is growing. Yay, little pine! Keep on living! It's probably a little over a foot tall now. 

And that's the story of me today. Mr. Moon and Jim worked from 8:30 to 5:30 on Tom's stuff. A conference call with an attorney was involved as was more delving into the depths of some of the items in the many sheds and so forth on Tom's property which is hot, nasty work. 
Jim has hit the road home to St. Augustine after spending the week here. I am amazed at how both men are still managing to retain their sense of humor about the whole situation. You just have to. 

Here's a lamp Glen brought home, thinking I might like it. 

Cleaned, rewired, and with the shades replaced as several of them are broken, it might be worth keeping and as we all know, I need more lamps. 
It's heavy enough to be used in an Alfred Hitchcock type murder if one has the strength to heft and swing it at someone's head. I'm serious. It must weigh twenty pounds. At least.

Oh, Tom. 

Wild and invasive morning glories. 
At least they bloom. 

Love...Ms. Moon

 

Mostly Back To Our Regularly Scheduled Programming

Last night when I was making our supper, Glen kept saying things like, "You shouldn't have to make your own birthday dinner," and I kept reassuring him that I was enjoying myself so much. And I was! I steamed the spinach for the casserole in a skillet and then used the skillet to cook the salmon in. I already had leftover rice which I mixed up with the spinach and an egg and a little evaporated milk I had leftover from the scallop thing I had made the night before with salt and pepper and a little parmesan. I baked it in the pretty green casserole dish, perfectly sized for a two-person casserole that I recently thrifted. I baked it in the toaster oven/air-fryer so the kitchen didn't get heated up from using the big oven. 
I cooked the salmon in a little olive oil with salt and pepper, lemon juice and dill like May taught me. That was it. 
And the corn on the cob was simply boiled for a minute or two. 
It was sort of a very perfect dinner and it was pretty and I got a great deal of pleasure from making it and eating it too. So did Mr. Moon. The eating part, I mean. I am grateful to be able to cook good things for us and I am grateful we have the means to be able to grow some of the things we eat and to afford those we don't grow. For me, cooking is for nourishment and pleasure. And some nights, it is just a joy. 
Of course the man cleaned up the kitchen afterwards and I have to say my slice of Publix carrot cake was every bit as delicious as I had hoped it would be. 
It was such a good birthday. 

And today was special too! I picked up Hank and we went to lunch together and we sat and we talked and we talked and it was just so much fun. That darling boy of mine is a wonder. All of my children are so different and I find each and every one of them so enjoyable to be around, to talk to, to hang out with. We are at ease with each other. It is a blessing indeed and I do not take that for granted. 
We stopped in to the two little thrift stores in the same plaza and although we did not buy anything, we had such a good time looking. Hank found an old copy of The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew which was a favorite of mine and a favorite of his. Oh my Lord, what a silly and dated book it is and we loved it so much. I just looked it up and it was published in 1881! There was an entire series written about the poor Peppers and their saintly mother, all written by Margaret Sidney. It was fun, admiring and criticizing and waxing nostalgic about so many of the items. And laughing so hard about others. Hank and I pretty much raised each other, along with May, and we have so many shared memories. 

And that was my beautiful afternoon. 

Mr. Moon is still dealing with Tom things and probably will be for quite awhile. 
Sigh. 
As he said yesterday, "This is not what I had bargained for." But back when Tom asked him to be the trustee of his estate, he was in fine health and relatively young and the whole idea of what that might eventually entail was just a shimmer of a possible future reality. 
And yet, here we are. I admire him and Tom's friend Jim who is helping Glen with all of this so much. It's a huge task, both on the legal side and on the possessions side. 
Especially that one. 

But right now Glen's in the Glen Den, shelling the peas I picked today. I didn't even go out to the garden yesterday at all which I believe may have been a first for me in many, many months. We're still getting some nice things.

I started a new bottle of pepper vinegar today and discovered I was out of white vinegar. Why I did not put that on my list I do not know but I used the apple cider vinegar, along with balsamic and wine vinegars. Now that should be interesting! 
I need to pickle my jalapeños. I doubt I have enough to fill up a quart jar but still, I use them in cooking and there's no need for them to go to waste. 

Here's what the Seminole pumpkin is doing today. 

And here's a new baby, growing on the vine which is covering the east side fence. 

I am fascinated by this vegetable. I think I am going to start calling it The Seminole Hulk Pumpkin Vine. 

While we're at it, here are two zinnia pictures I took. The ones in the garden are just about spent. Done and dusted for the most part. 
Sigh. 
But the garden by the kitchen still has a few beauties that look pretty healthy. 

This one is a tiny bit past its expiration date but the colors are still fantastic. 

And now a picture that I meant to post yesterday, but due to my narcissistic birthday ramblings, I forgot. 

That was in the Tallahassee Democrat, the local newspaper and it is of our Gibson out on the field practicing with his new high school's marching band. 
Do you have any idea how freaking hot it is out there? 
So freaking hot. 
We are very, very proud of that sweetest of the sweet boys. 

It has rained here which yes, did give me a delicious scent of petrichor but which now seems to have released the scent of something dead. It's not horrible, but here on the back porch, it's definitely smellable. It could be the corpse of the fucking giant Georgia Thumper that Mr. Moon smashed with a whelk shell because it was the only thing he could find at the moment, on the back porch steps and then tossed to the side of the steps. 
I would really rather not have seen that. 
But what I'm saying is, is that the grasshopper was so large that it's inevitable decay could be the cause of the death smell. 

Life in Lloyd! Too much nature. Etc.

Love...Ms. Moon