Well, Hey! I Didn't Do Anything Today!

Today surely hasn't been a picture day. It hasn't been much of an anything day, to tell you the truth. I'm embarrassed at how little I got done today. I'm serious. I did do some more garden clearing and that pretty much satisfies my need to suffer in a fairly short time so that's good. I probably pulled a hundred cherry laurel sprouts or possibly more. At least they're easy to pull. So that certainly wasn't photo-worthy. 
However, the little critter in the picture up there (and the one below) was not quite like any anole I've ever seen. Color-wise, that is. 

 I've seen anoles with stripes and I have just learned (thanks, Google!) that the stripe can indicate the little lizard is a female. OR, it could be a juvenile male. But mostly the stripes are white and although the photos don't really show it, this stripe was quite yellow which was so interesting because the anole was on the pumpkin vines which yes, are green, but there are also those vibrant yellow flowers. Supposedly the stripe does not change color for camouflage like the rest of the skin but I swear, it looked like this one's had. 
Such very, very interesting creatures. To me, at least. 

I was a little late feeding the crows and they were on the stumps eating before I got back to the porch. I sat down on the porch steps, hoping they'd let me get a picture of them which wasn't taken through the screen. And they did, but only when they were on the farthest stumps from the house. 

Those birds are going to become my friends! I swear it! They are going to come perch on my finger! Or shoulder! They are going to speak to me and call me by name, and they are going to bring me a diamond bracelet! 
Of course they aren't but it would be nice if they'd let me get a picture of them on one of the closer stumps. 
All holding diamond bracelets in their beaks. 
For me. 

Not in this lifetime, Ms. Moon. 

One of the very, very few things I did today was to patch a hole in a pair of Mr. Moon's shorts. These shorts are, well, shit beat, is the only word that truly describes them. They are his lawn mowing shorts and/or his painting shorts so, really, why does he need them patched? He claims that he doesn't want his butt hanging out and I suppose that's legit. So I sewed them up as best I could and applied a patch of purple flannel to them. The shorts are theoretically black. 
It is not my best work. But his butt will not be hanging out so goal met. 

Speaking of that man, here he is sitting in the peacock chair. 

"You look wise," I told him. 
"I am," he said. He also told me not to use that picture unless I can edit out the wound on his knee. I told him it wouldn't matter. He got it on the boat today, I think. Vikings get wounds. 

I hear it was a good day of scalloping. They got their limit on the first stop they made. Here are some pictures. Some Glen took, some Lauren took. 

Gibson and Magnolia with their haul. I'm pretty sure that the thing that's going on behind them is another person in the party diving down to look for more scallops and not a shark. 

Maggie at lunch afterwards. She needed a little table-nap. We've all been there. Scalloping is hard work. 

Handsome Gibson. 

And that's about it from me today. 

Love...Ms. Moon

A Not Really A Recipe Recipe Plus Other Stuff

Last night I made my third attempt at the high-protein, high-fiber bread I've been trying to make and this batch came out quite well in my opinion. In fact, I was delighted. The crust was nice and crusty and the crumb was soft and very chewable. It was not like eating cardboard at all! 
Of course, that would be a low bar but honestly, I thought this was fine bread. It's made of one cup of bread flour, about a cup and a half of rolled oats, about a half a cup of ground flax seed, salt, two eggs, a cup or so of cottage cheese, honey, a tablespoon of yeast and as much warm water as it takes to make a nice stretchy dough. 
Sorry that I don't have exact measurements but that's the way I do it. Yesterday's dough was far more moist than the other two loaves I'd made and I'm sure that's what the big difference was. 
I've been using my food processor to make the dough but it's really not quite adequate. I've been putting the oats and flax seed in first and grinding them up, then adding the flour, the yeast, the salt, cottage cheese and eggs and carefully adding the water to try and get the proportions right. You could definitely use a blender to do the oats, flax seed, cottage cheese and eggs in and then proceed as you usually do with your bread either kneading it by hand or in a stand mixer. I believe I'll start putting that first mixture after it's been processed into my Kitchen Aid with the dough hook and adding the flour and water and yeast and salt and honey as I mix it all. I haven't been sprinkling the yeast over the water in the approved manner because I'm not sure of the exact amount of water I'll be using but guess what? 
It does not matter. It might just take a little longer for its first rise. 
Anyway, if you like to make bread you can try it. 

Sweet Jesus but it's hot. It's so humid and sticky that when I come outside in the mornings after spending the night in the glory that is air conditioning, my skin feels like it's getting condensation on it like the windows do. As if my skin is literally fogging up. I managed to get out into the garden a little earlier today and got some more weeding done, pulled the cucumbers and most of the tomatoes. Suddenly I am READY to get everything cleared out for the collard, mustard, turnip, and kale greens. I still have some pea vines and of course the pumpkin vines. I'm still getting a few peppers so I'm not pulling them yet. Their time is coming soon, though. 

All in all I only spent about forty-five minutes out there but that was enough. The rest of the day I've done little things that have needed doing like putting drain unclogger into my shower drain AGAIN. I am afraid that the only thing that's going to really fix that situation is to snake the dang thing out and I'm certainly not doing that. I did a lot of laundry, including the sheets, of course. I watered the thirsty porch plants. I watered the split leaf philodendron and the mango in the back yard along with the sea grape and the Texas Star Hibiscus. I filled the birdbath. I fed the crows. I find it so interesting that the same five crows come every day. The more I observe these birds, the more I realize I do not know about them. 
While I was in the back yard, watering plants and feeding crows, Maurice just happened to come by and decide that a little rest under the shade of the wisteria arbor might be just the ticket. 

I really need to trim that wisteria. The vines are taking over the magnolia tree and inserting themselves under the eaves of the house and creeping across the ground. 
Get in line, wisteria! There's a whole lot on Mama's list. 

I played with my camera some. Here's a picture for you.

You see that ant? Okay, it is far from being perfectly in focus but when I tell you that it's barely visible to the naked eye, I am not kidding you. The paper it's on is regular lined paper like we all used in school. 

There's another one in this picture. Can you see it? 
Now the darn thing about these minuscule insects is that they are the bane of my life because they are constantly crawling on me and stinging me when I'm on the back porch writing. 
Now how in the world something that small has enough toxin to even feel is rather unbelievable. But it's not a matter of just feeling it. It stings! It really, really stings! And you know I'm no insect bite wimp. 

Another picture. 

Another treasure from Tom's. And this is actually rather nice. Hardly any signs of the rattan becoming unwoven. 

Also, very nice work on it. Definitely not just a Pier 1 factory piece. Perhaps even midcentury. I am sure Tom found it on the side of the road and good for him! It's what we call a peacock chair and I'm sure you can see why. It even came with a cushion which I am washing as we speak. 

And here we have a picture of the ancient oak in my front yard. 

Do you see the crotch there in what is sort of the center of the picture where the ferns are growing? 
I thought I saw something that rather surprised me growing in that hollow and with the aid of my Super Zoom Lens I discovered I was right. 

It has palms growing up there! 
Now I know this is probably not a sign of a healthy tree. Please do not advise me on what I should do. The tree is probably at least three hundred years old and this is the stage its life is in now. 
It is old and it is nurturing new growth in the parts of it that are turning from hard wood to what is most likely a decaying mulch-like material. 

Oh my word. It is raining. Let this be a real one. The air is suddenly at least ten degrees cooler. The birds are singing songs of praise and joy. It smells like iron and moss and wood and wet dirt. 
And it's already passing. 
Well, that was really beautiful while it was happening. 

Martini time! 

Happy Friday, y'all. 
Love...Ms. Moon

The window in the bathroom off the kitchen. It faces west and that's what it looks like in the late afternoon. 

It Really Is Too Hot

 Not very pretty is it? 
Well, no. It's not. But that's the south end of the garden, cleared of pea vines, zinnias (almost!) and weeds, ready for okra and whatever else we put in next. Arugula, possibly. I still haven't planted more and yet I am still getting enough from what I planted months ago to add that delicious pepper bite to our salads. And, some of it I didn't even plant. It reseeded from the last year's plants. Arugula is one tough yet tender bitch of a green. 
I like that in a plant. Tough and tender is something I like in a man too. Or a woman, for that matter. 
I waited way too late this morning to get out to work. Full sun and no breeze. Just heat and humidity which put the humility into me real fast. After about half an hour I was done. I could absolutely feel my body yelling at me to get my ass back in the house which I did. And oh, I forgot to mention that some big-ass red ants managed to crawl up my pant's leg. It was not a great gardening session in any way, shape, or form. 
I felt a bit humiliated. And now what was I going to do? Mr. Moon and Jim were back over at Tom's, doing more clearing out. They'd also gone to Monticello to get title work done on Tom's Subaru. Their duties have included both the physical and the legal and they are such a good team with both. 
But anyway, I decided to go ahead and shell the small basketful of peas I'd picked in the last few days which allowed me to watch another episode of The Bear, guilt-free. 
Y'all. It wrecked me. 
And I have to take back everything I said about Jamie Lee Curtis and her overacting and how she annoyed me, because she absolutely slayed in this episode. She and the woman who plays her daughter had almost all the screen time in this one and at first, when she came into the scene, I was like, "Oh god. Here we fucking go." 
And it was that way at first. 
She was the most annoying woman in the world. Her daughter, whose husband was out of town, had gone into labor and was unable to get in touch with anyone except her mother and so she called her despite the fact that their relationship was...fraught...to say the least. 
I won't go deeply into it and it wasn't all entirely realistic but what killed me, just killed me, was that in a short space of time, the two women were able to be honest with each other and drop the pretenses and excuses and expose themselves with more truth and nakedness than they ever had before. And this all happened in the context of a woman being in a hospital room with her daughter who was giving birth to her own daughter, remembering what it had been like to have her own children, both the pain and the pride and the joy she'd experienced, along with the resentments and fears she'd felt all those years ago. 
There was no huge apology scene nor was there a moment when an epiphany struck either one of them. It was more of an example of allowing oneself to be vulnerable enough to listen and to accept the love being offered, no matter its vast imperfections and the pain it had caused. 
The actor who played the daughter is Abby Elliot and her acting abilities astound me. 
You do NOT see her acting which is my highest praise.
And I can only say that Jamie Lee Curtis's performance as that mother today was the best thing I've ever seen her do. She ripped my heart out. 
I don't have the words to describe it, really. But it left me grieving for the fact that my mother and I never once had that sort of real connecting and perhaps we could have. 
I guess our walls were too high, too wide and walls like that are built for many reasons over a lifetime, mostly for protection. My mother was with me once when I gave birth. I actually invited her to be there and I'm not sure why except that I guess I was still hoping we could make that sort of connection, that we could heal in that context, perhaps. Turned out that I really had very little sense that she was even there and if any healing occurred, I do not remember it. 
What I do remember is that after Lily was born (for it was her birth), she took Hank and May and got them supper at Burger King, I think, and brought Glen and me the very best hamburgers and french fries anyone on this earth has ever eaten or will ever eat and I do remember that with gratefulness. 

Nothing else of real interest happened today except that I have realized that I honestly do NOT know how to take photographs. 
I just don't. I think I may be doing everything backwards. I need some damn lessons as to how to operate a camera, specifically the one on this iPhone.

Oh well, I'm having fun trying to figure it out. 

That little cluster of white flowers below the marigolds is a bloom of the spirea which has absolutely no reason to be blooming now. It is an early spring bloomer. 
Ah-lah. The times they are a changing. 

Love...Ms. Moon

Back To School, Back To Sanity. Mostly

It was freaking hot today. And yes, cars get really hot sitting in parking lots. However, when I got in that car after it had been sitting in a parking lot, it was registering 99 degrees. It was 100 after I'd driven it about six miles down the road. 
Of course these days, a hundred degrees F is becoming normal for many areas of the world which no one ever would have imagined even ten years ago. 
Except the environmental scientists. They knew what was coming.

This morning I was in a low place when I got up. Again, I do not know why. I was so teary and getting these back-to-school photos only made me tearier.

Maggie was going for a sort of school-uniform/anime look. 
Success! 

August and Levon- this year's hug photo. 

I mentioned how much I loved these pictures of them hugging every year and Jessie sent this. 

That was five years ago when August was starting kindergarten. Levon was a baby! And August was barely much past the baby stage. 

My heart. 

So August is going into fifth grade this year, as is Maggie, and Levon is going into the third grade. All of this just seems completely impossible. 

By this time, I was ready to text Jessie and Lily and bow out of the pedicure situation but I knew damn well that seeing them was exactly what I needed to do. Forget my toes, my heart needed some tending. 
So I met them at the salon and yes, they cheered me right up. I dumped all my woes out as soon as I got there and they just listened and nodded and said things like, "That's hard," and I started feeling better immediately. 
And then I picked out the nail polish color I wanted and things got better from there. 

Pictures! 

These were both quick-quick point and shoots and I did not even notice until Jessie pointed it out that there was an almost-naked Ryan Reynolds on the screen on the wall. Lily hadn't noticed it either but it does look as if she HAS and is getting some enjoyment out of it. 

We talked about more and more stuff and my technician pretended he was using Harry Potter type magic to make the chair I was sitting in come closer or farther away from him so he could work on my feet more easily. He had a button which was pretty obvious but he was getting a kick out of it. He also said I had long legs which Jessie and Lily refused to believe, which is natural, seeing as how their legs are about fifty feet long but I pointed out to them that for my height (which is becoming less and less every day), my legs ARE pretty long. I am extremely short-waisted. 
The guy also said, as he painted my toenails red, the color I had chosen, that I now had sexy toes. 
"Something about me needs to be sexy," I said. This, too, amused my children. 
Jesus, kids! 
Here's a picture of my sexy toes. 

The ant bites and veins are especially fetching, are they not? 

Lily had errands to run afterwards and leftovers to eat at home but Jessie and I went a few doors down to the noodle place. I like this noodle place but the portions are HUGE. I got a dish called Japchae which is basically stir-fried noodles made with sweet potato starch which somehow magically turn into a sort of clear, stretchy, chewy noodle, with vegetables and chicken. I ate until I could eat no more because it was delicious and brought home enough for at least two more lunches. 

Jessie is working tonight, her first shift after getting back from North Carolina, and she needed to get home and take a nap. I drove to the pharmacy where my hormones were ready for pick-up and then came on back to Lloyd. This evening I feel far less like jumping off a bridge and thank goodness. 
Glen just got back from Tom's where he and Jim spent the day going through more things and packing some of them up. Some of the things will go to Goodwill or Oak Tree, or some place like that, some will go to the dump, and a few pieces of artwork that could possibly be worth anything of value are going to someone who can appraise them. 
This is going on forever, not unlike how long it took for Glen to talk Tom into buying the tiny house after a tree fell on his fifty-year old trailer and then doing all the work of getting it there, hooking it up to water and electricity, and moving Tom into it. 
Am I being a little, um, less than graceful about all of this? 
You bet! 
In fact, Mr. Moon seems to be more cheerful about all of this than I am. Let's face it- he's just a better human being. I have no hesitation in saying that, either. He just is. 

A few garden pictures. 

The tabasco peppers are still putting forth beautifully. I need to make more pepper sauce. 

Bee on basil bloom! 
Lucky shot. Look at its eye! 

Another photo of the basil flowers. This is the African basil. I think. It's one of those basils. 
If I were a bee, I'd be making love to those blooms all day long. Such seductive colors and tendrils and delineated come-hither features. Who could resist? I am still so very, very desirous of tasting honey made from the nectar of basil flowers. I haven't figured out how that's going to happen though. I'll let you know if I do.

Thunder is rolling and lightning is cracking right now. Whether or not we get any rain is still...up in the air. 
Jeez. I am so sorry. 
But really, I do so hope it does. 

And that's my life in Lloyd tonight. 

Love...Ms. Moon

There's A Learning Curve, Obviously

I'm not there yet on the new iPhone camera. Parts of this pumpkin blossom are quite nice but other parts are not in focus. 
I keep having this problem. I need to read some more, watch some videos, learn some more. 

This isn't bad but it doesn't scream MAGNIFICENT to me. 

Meanwhile, here's our biggest pumpkin. 

The bee balm is beginning to bloom. (Unintended alliteration.) 

Not there. Getting close. No pun intended. 

Last night when I was taking the first pictures, I captured something that really sort of blew me away and it's the camera's capability when it comes to telephoto shots. 
The sun was going down and was shining bits of golden light here and there. 

You can see three of them here if you look closely. I focused in and look what I got.

That is not bad detail for being so far away. 

So yes, I am going to have fun with this thing and still find myself shocked at the fact that I enjoy taking pictures so much. I never, ever would have discovered that without this blog or iPhones which make it easy to get at least decent pictures, if not superb ones. 

My anxiety seems to have settled in. I find myself anxious about the silliest, tiniest, little things I need to deal with. Things on the internet, as I said yesterday, things I need to get in the mail. Picking the last of the peas so as not to waste them. Getting the garden cleared for the fall planting. Not having spent enough time with my grandchildren this summer. Not having spent enough time with all my children this summer. 
Wondering if I'll ever feel that same sort of contented happiness I was feeling when we got back from North Carolina. 
And none of this is life-threatening or even necessarily true. And that, of course, makes no difference at all in how I feel. 

I did get a few things accomplished yesterday and today and transferring the data to my new phone was a big one although it turned out to be incredibly simple. 

I have a terrible neurosis about returning things and mailing things in general and I wanted to get my old phone on its way to AT&T according to instructions which involved nothing more than erasing the data on it, getting it packaged in the same box my new phone came in, and printing out the label I'd been sent. Glen did that part for me and I did the rest which, again, was nothing. NOTHING! And then all I needed to do was take it to the Fed Ex place which is about five hundred yards (if that) from where Lily works. 
I managed to do that and I got my things in the mail I needed to send off and I got to visit Lily at work which is always a joy. 
I have to stop here and brag for a moment. She got an evaluation at work recently and got a perfect which she rather modestly said she'd never even heard of happening. 
I am not surprised. 
I wanted to go by Oak Tree and check out the treasures there just for fun and also because I needed to get out of the house. Jim, Tom's friend, is back and he and Glen are hard at it. So I went by there and found not one thing I wanted or needed. By then I was so hungry and took myself to get some shrimp tacos and THEN I had to go to the dreaded, horrible Walmart to get a new phone case. 
It wasn't that bad, really. The phone cases are locked up and there are so many to choose from as to brand and color and design and blah, blah, blah. I spent a lot of time just looking without asking for help to unlock them so that I could examine at least the boxes more closely and I finally did that. I realized at one point that there were at least three different sources of speakers, all blasting different things from TV shows to stereos and it was hard to think, much less think logically. When the lady unlocked the first display of them I just reached for the Apple case and after discussing it with the her and she said she had no idea if they were any good, I chose it. Life is too short for this fucking around, trying to make a decision based on quick internet searches and absolutely nothing else of substance. I got a screen protector too, paid for them, and left the store. At least with an Apple case, I knew it would fit properly and besides that, it was packaged as artfully and simply and easy to open as all Apple products are. This is not nothing. It cost more than the cheapest cases, and less than the most expensive. 
And so that is done. 
On to the library to drop off books and then to Publix to pick up a prescription and get groceries. 
We are indeed having scallops again tonight. Last night's chili was very good and Glen and Jim finished it up today for lunch. 

So. I can still get things mailed off. I can still go visit my daughter at work. I can still do my shopping. I can still make our meals. I can still keep plants alive. (Mostly.) I can still laugh and I can still cry and not let it overtake me. I can still survive Walmart. I can still have a perfectly normal conversation with another person in Publix. 
I'm okay. Anxiety passes. 

And in the entire scheme of things, this bout of it is not so bad. Not so bad at all. 

Tomorrow? A pedicure with Lily and Jessie! The kids start back to school and mamas need to do something to note that day. It's a big one. And they have invited me. I haven't gotten a pedicure since Lily and I got one probably back in June. 

We'll get there. 

Love...Ms. Moon

Waiting, Wondering, And Philosophizing

I think it is possible that the crows have brought us a little acknowledgment of the mealworms. I found these two bits of what look possibly like peppers from the garden in the center of one of the stumps where I feed them everyday. At first I thought they might be parts of the beautiful magnolia seeds that pop from the cones they make and that would have made sense, seeing as how a branch of the magnolia tree is right above the stump but that is definitely not what this is. The seeds of the magnolia are hard and waxy. And then I thought maybe it was something that had been in the poop of a bird, possibly a crow, but there was no poop. Just those bits of what I truly think are peppers with little pepper-looking seeds in them. 
Maybe. Maybe not. Either way it is curious. How would a pepper have gotten from the garden to that stump? 

I spent the day staying right here at home, waiting for the delivery of my new iPhone. We had been told it would arrive either today or tomorrow and I was almost certain it wouldn't show up until tomorrow or...who knows? 
But by golly, it's here and I think I've almost transferred all my data from the iPhone Air to this one. Well, a lot of it anyway. I swear to you- if this is true, it is far easier to transfer the data off one iPhone to another than it is to clean out a closet and a hell of a lot less effort. Here are the directions on how to set up the new device which came with the phone:

Turn it on and follow the on-screen steps.

I remember when I got my first Apple product, which was a desktop computer, it came with no directions whatsoever. I had no clue about anything having to do with a computer. None. And this was a very long time ago. I bought a copy of "Macs For Dummies" and that is how I learned. And learn I did. I will never entirely forget the thrill of getting that first admittedly-not-Apple's-finest-moment-in-computers (the Performa model- anyone remember those?) and learning how to get online with the telephone connection, all the beeps and brrrs and whirrs. Sometimes it took forever and of course if you were online, no one could call your house. 

Gather 'round children and let old MerMer tell you about the olden days. 

So I stayed here, waiting for this delivery because it had to be signed for. I worked in the bed beside the house for about an hour, pulling chenille plant, border grass, and crocosmia and that was all I could manage of that but I am making progress. I put all the CD's that I'd bagged up and put in the trunk of my car and then taken out of the trunk of my car when y'all convinced me not to get rid of all that music, back into the drawers from which they had come. This is one of those things that took almost no time whatsoever but which I had been putting off for weeks. I melted the glacier which had formed in the ice maker in the refrigerator door which has needed doing for weeks. It is now working fine. A hair dryer, a screwdriver, a knife, and a stepladder were all involved. I did a few online things that I've also been putting off. And I ironed some while I watched another episode of The Bear. I love the way different characters get their own episodes. That makes for a truly deeper understanding of them and it feels respectful to them and to the story. There is, I suppose, a main character but the entire series is not entirely based on him. 

Last night's scallops were so damn good I think I might repeat that menu again tomorrow. Why not? It was so simple, and so very perfect. The main thing about cooking scallops is to not overcook them or they will become chewy and dry. Somehow I managed to get them just right. 
Tonight I've got a pot of beef, bean, and sweet potato chili going. Not really a hot-weather food and if we didn't have air-conditioning I would definitely not be making it nor would we be eating it. 

I really wish I had something more interesting to talk about this evening but I don't. I had hoped that the transfer of data would be complete by now so that I could hopefully take a few pictures and post them here this evening. I'm just a little child who wants to play with the toys she got for her birthday. 

It is so bizarre to think of how much these devices have changed my life. All of our lives, really, and yours too if you're here reading this. There are many things about the technology which are disturbing and dangerously addictive and the rapid proliferation of AI scares me to death. Used in some contexts, it is amazing and helpful and I think will lead us to finding cures for many diseases which have baffled us forever. In other contexts, it is blurring the line between reality and not-reality and that is what scares me. Trump has already almost completely done away with the borders of truth and lies and so many people believe not only what they hear but what they see, quite plainly, right there in front of their eyes on their phones, on their tablets, on their laptops and it's getting harder and harder to tell the difference between what is truly a recording of an event and what has been AI generated. 
Will reality cease to be of importance? Will truth become so nebulous that that it loses its meaning? 

I try to step back and take a breath. The first people to build, contain, and control a fire had no idea what that would mean to the rest of humanity in the eternal forever. Some of it so very amazingly good and yet, it came with the possibility of it being used as a completely destructive and ultimately uncontrollable power.

I'll stop now. 

Love...Ms. Moon

P.S. Boy, am I going to have fun with this. 

I Can't Even Title This

The pine cone lilies are shooting up their stalks and the "cones" are forming nicely. The little buds you see there are the actual blooms, the flowers. In the next few weeks the bracts, the cones, will turn from green to scarlet. I honestly did not know what a bract was until I just looked it up. They are specialized leaves which sit below a flower, a flower cluster, or a stem. They come in all shapes and sizes. An artichoke, the part we eat, is a bract. 
Seventy-two years old and I did not know this most basic of botanical facts. 

I did know that these lilies are part of the ginger family. I have never used their roots for culinary purposes but I just read that they can be, although their taste is more pungent and bitter than the kind we buy in the store. Still, I might try it sometime. 
I have never been a forager but I admire those who have the knowledge, eye, and skill to practice that art. The only thing I can really say I've ever picked from the wild to ingest with the exception of berries are mushrooms of the psilocybin variety and that I have indeed done. Luckily, they are easy to identify and since they grow out of cow shit, or at least the ones in Florida do, there's that as an identifier too. 
I often wonder who the first person was in Central Florida who introduced us to these mushrooms. All I know is that suddenly, there were...mushrooms. We did not call them "shrooms" and we didn't call them "magic" mushrooms as far as I can remember. Cow pastures were everywhere in Central Florida where I was living then as they are in most of the state. Before long, everyone was out gathering the mushrooms. The authorities (to be respectful) took awhile to catch up on what was happening and for awhile, it was pretty darn easy to hop a fence and gather them. I think for some time they weren't even illegal because they had not been classified as a drug yet. 
Oh, the good old days. 
I've written about my first experience with mushrooms before (what have I NOT written about at this point?) and you can find one of those posts here. 
There's a lot I could say about the powerful and often incredibly healing experience of ingesting psychedelic substances but Michael Pollan, a very fine author and journalist wrote what I consider to be one of the best books on the subject and that book is entitled How To Change Your Mind.
I have written about that, too, of course, and recommend it highly if the subject interests you. 

Dear god, how did I get here? 
From pinecone lilies to psilocybin mushrooms and beyond. 
My mind is a wandering, wondering fool of a mind. 

I took a mostly restful day today. Being as it is Sunday, Mr. Moon and I had our regular date-day which basically means we both took it easy and loved on each other a lot. It seems silly to schedule a day for such sweet attentions but just because you have an empty nest, it does not mean you take the time to focus on your love. We become complacent about such things sometimes, taking each other for granted, not stopping to truly appreciate each other. And forgetting to tell each other how much the other means to us. 
Kisses don't hurt either. 
Mr. Moon spent most of the day shucking scallops. I am not kidding you. And yes, that can be a part of date day. 

As I said in a response to a comment on yesterday's post, when you figure in the effort it takes to find and collect these delicacies (and that's the fun and easy part), the gas for the boat, and mostly the hours and hours of shucking required, it makes whatever they charge for them a bargain. 
But as with the garden and the food we eat from it, there is another kind of reward to the whole thing and that is what makes it all worthwhile. Tonight I'll be simply sautéing some of them with butter, garlic, and a little bit of lemon juice and serving them over pasta, and making a salad. A shallot might be involved if I get all crazy with it or maybe I'll just go as basic as I can and let the scallops be the stars and supporting cast of the meal. The salad will be utterly simple too. I might toast some of the bread I made a few days ago, trying to recreate and improve on the bread I made before with the oats, the flax seed, the cottage cheese, etc. It turned out pretty nicely if you don't mind a heartier texture to your bread which I do not. 
And that will be that. 
Here are some roses.

They are putting forth another bloom. These old heirlooms never quit. Not entirely. The late-ish summer garden is not as exciting as the spring or even fall garden with their quick promises of what's to come but even as some things brown and become brittle, other things continue to produce, albeit in a far less dramatic way. Mr. Moon keeps telling me that we can still plant okra and tomatoes and I'm fine with that. Let's do it! But today when he told me we could plant one more crop of green beans I vehemently said, "No!" I love my green beans and I was so grateful for them but I have picked and cooked and processed all I care to pick, cook, or process until next year. 
I think he was a little shocked at my immediate response but I am quite certain of how I feel about this. I have plenty of canned green beans and pickled green beans to last us and other family members until the next planting. 
Thank you, but no. 
Sometimes too much is just enough but sometimes too much is just too much. 

Would you look at this? 

Five pounds of scallops according to my granddaddy's scale if you figure in the weight of the bowl. And that scale may be old as hell but it is still pretty accurate. 

I guess I better go cook some scallops. 

Love...Ms. Moon