Monday, July 4, 2011

I Sort Of Wish I Had A Hot Dog Now


I don't know why I didn't take pictures of the lunch we had today. I lie. I do know, actually. BECAUSE I WAS TOO HUNGRY TO STOP AND TAKE PICTURES BUT HAD TO EAT IT IMMEDIATELY!

May was coming out and for some reason all the vegetables we've been eating over and over and over again just sounded so good again and I cooked up some field peas with yard-long beans and some collard greens and some corn on the cob and I sliced tomatoes and I cooked potatoes to make for a potato salad because Madame Radish King has been talking about her potato salad for days but when the potatoes were done they were just so good, plain with salt that I didn't add anything to them to muck them up. Besides, Mr. Moon doesn't really like potato salad and I don't really need any damn mayonnaise.

So we all sat down and ate and ate and ate and oh, it was good.
Summer food will not be here forever. At least not THIS particular summer food, not out of my garden.

Owen was completely overcome to have May here. So overcome that he slugged her a few times and he poked her in the face with a parasol which gave her a tiny cut and it was terrible. He was a terrible boy but he didn't mean to be and when he wasn't slugging her he was kissing her and hugging her and pleading with her to be with him every moment. "May-May!"
He just loves her so much and he's a tiny boy with all that tiny testosterone and he doesn't know what to do with his love so he hits her. He's like the monsters in The Wild Things: he loves her so much he'll eat her UP!
Don't believe he did not get fussed at. He did. We said, "No!" and "Don't hit! That hurts!" but he doesn't really know what hurting is about, much less hitting.
Well, I am his grandmother. His discipline is not really my job. But no, he cannot hit the ones he loves. Or anyone else, either.
Ah lah. He made up for it all by brushing her hair. He made her sit in the correct place and he made her take off her glasses and he brushed those yards of hair and said, "Nice."

He even opened some conditioner and rubbed it into her hair. Just a little bit. Really. He did.

But beyond the hitting, he was charming and wonderful and it was just so perfect to have my daughter May here with her beauty and her sweetness and her sense of humor. She is so much like me in so many ways that it's scary. I was SO glad for the visit. I was so glad to make her a meal of things from the garden and to have her to talk about things with and laugh with and share Owen with.
I am not unlike Owen. I could eat her up too. I understand completely.

It has just been a good day. Owen made us all laugh and he got to ride on the four-wheeler with his Bop

which he enjoyed tremendously but took very seriously.

We sat on the back steps for quite awhile, watching the birds.

It was just the best, having both Bop and May here.

But now May and Owen are gone and Mr. Moon is out in the yard with a neighbor and together they are creating a bear-proof deer-corn scatterer. I am not kidding you. They have been working on this all weekend. Welding and giant long metal tubelike things are involved. It has been explained to me and all I did was nod and act like I had a clue which I did not.

Well, it's the Fourth Of July and there's a watermelon in the refrigerator in the garage and there's a dead rattlesnake in the road in front of my house, fierce-looking even in its flatness and we have eaten warm, ripe tomatoes and pepper-vinegared collards greens and pyrotechnicians all over the country are getting things ready for fireworks to send up to explode in the sky with holy colored light to bring the oohs and aahs from us and they will bang and pop and sound like shock and awe and it will be glory but I think we'll be right here, safe from the crazy beered-up drivers, and if there are fireworks, they will be quiet and green and attached to the tails of lightening bugs and they will flit on and off in the dark edges of the woods.

What I would like to remember about this day is how Owen sat on the stairs and May and I threw a soft plastic bouncy ball up to bounce, bounce, bounce down and how Owen roared with laughter if it hit him on the head and clapped his hands if we successfully caught it and how he was really so tired that he laid down with his head on the step above him and said, "Nap," and I covered him up with the dishtowel I was holding and he would pretend to sleep and then he'd pop up and say, "Done!" and he did that three times. Each time he climbed up another few steps, so clever that boy, because we don't like him to climb the steps but he fooled us- he fooled his auntie and his grandmother until we finally figured it out and made him come back down and he didn't take any more naps and it was time for him to go home.

Yes. That.
And everything else.

Oh be safe, y'all. Be safe and happy.

Wishing you fireworks of every sort....Ms. Moon

18 comments:

  1. It was just the loveliest time. Most beautiful food, most beautiful family.

    ReplyDelete
  2. May- I love you so much. Can I just eat your little toe or something? I forgot to mention the Baby Yoga! I want to remember the Baby Yoga! Love and kisses...Your mama

    ReplyDelete
  3. such a sweet, sweet post -- my heart is bursting with warmth from it --

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'm happy for the reminder to call any vegetable, even if it's not from my garden!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Elizabeth- God. It was a sweet day.

    A- Yes! Vegetables are good! But a hot dog would be nice, too.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Have you ever held a baby or a puppy or a kitten and just loved it SO much that you wanted to hug it as hard as you can? But you don't because you know you will hurt it but oh, you have so much love you just want to squeeeeeeeeeze so hard? Maybe that is what Owen is doing? So much love it overflows and he doesn't know what to do with it. Bless HIS heart the sweet little lamb.

    I swear Owen has grown since you last posted his picture.

    A rattlesnake? You need to write a post on how you live with all these freaky creatures.

    PS- I killed a hornet with an electric bug zapper today and my heart was filled with joy. Little fucker.

    ReplyDelete
  7. oh jesus mary this is what i come here for. this alien and gorgeous life so rich and full like the best richest soil or incense or falling asleep under the cherry tree or swimming in a lake.
    love,
    rebecca

    ReplyDelete
  8. Birdie- When Owen was a baby I had a huge fear that I would accidentally bite off one of his fingers or toes. I swear.
    So yes- I understand. Mr. Moon sprayed some wasps on the kitchen porch yesterday which had nested in a windchime. Which is good. But a banana spider died. I am so worried that she was a benevolent spirit and that bad luck will now fall upon us.

    Madame King- Come here. Hold my hand. Let's join universes.

    ReplyDelete
  9. A sweet and wonderful day.
    Owen just has so many emotions in that little body...lucky for him May-May understands. :)

    And whoa, look at how much his hair has lightened...now he's a blondie.

    ReplyDelete
  10. i look at may may...sitting with that turn of her head, that soft smile...in all that soft light of love, and i see you.

    xoxoxoxoox

    ReplyDelete
  11. My son's testosterone exploded today, too. Must be all the sonic booms in the air, plus all that meat. There was one point where the kid just roared.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Yes. I am feeling this day and loving these photos with Owen and his Bop.

    Team Moon is over the moon and so are we because we are always invited to sit on the steps, too.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Thanks for sharing the day and the photos with us. I love my May-May.

    You should have taken a photo of the smashed snake. You know how I get a thrill out of that shit. I'm old now. That's my thrill!

    SB

    ReplyDelete
  14. I don't have much to say today but just want to say hi, I'm here, and reading, and loving.

    ReplyDelete
  15. His nose is changing, you think? Funny to watch them grow.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Glad that you had a good day. If I weren't sitting on the boat underneath the old aircraft carrier where the fireworks are shot from, I would definitely just be home. Not driving is a good idea on this holiday.

    ReplyDelete
  17. What lovely pictures. Owen is so lucky to have you all. Mr Moon's invention sounds brilliant! xx

    ReplyDelete

Tell me, sweeties. Tell me what you think.