Sunday, April 30, 2023

More Pragmatic Miracles And The Good Smell Of Fabuloso And White Vinegar


 Red daddy cardinal sits on the feeder, his black mask and yellow beak his pride and his joy and he is beautiful. He pecks away in a desultory fashion, taking time between each head-dipping retrieval of a seed to stop and look around. I suppose he could be on the alert for danger but I like to think that he is so blown away by this late afternoon's blue sky and green everything else, fresh breeze that makes the leaves dance, and soft cool air, that he has to stop, look up, and admire it again and again. 

Just like me. 

I can't stop being in wonder at this sweetness. 

Unfortunately, I did not spend much time outside today. And part of the reason for that was because it took the weather all day long to decide who it wanted to be. A windy, fussy bitch with a gray-sky hat or a perfect joy that you'd just like to breathe in, take in, with all of your senses? 
But mostly I just felt that there were things around here that HAD to be done. One of those things was mopping my kitchen and the bathroom and pantry that lie off of it. I absolutely have no idea when the last time I mopped that area was. And there have been spills, of course, and the regular detritus that falls onto kitchen floors. It is a workroom, the kitchen. And ours has a door that leads to the outside which is the door we use most of the time so add tracked-in black Lloyd dirt to all the other stuff and well...

I moved everything that I could out of there and swept twice and mopped twice and honestly, if I had swept and mopped three times it probably would not have been quite enough. But twice was enough for me. 

And last night I fed my sourdough and put black beans to soak and after I made our Sunday morning breakfast I made up the bread dough and put together soup with the black beans. Talk about your slow cooking! Of course sourdough takes all day long and black beans do too. But you know- the best things always take a good long time to come to fruition. 

When I got up today, Mr. Moon told me the wildest thing. Around six-thirty, when it was just beginning to get light, Jack jumped on the bed in a hunting-pounce stance and then, something, he thought a mouse, ran across the length of our bed where it disappeared to his eyes. 
I was aware that Jack had jumped so heavily on the bed but was deep, deep in sleep I guess, because I did not really wake up fully although I did notice that my husband was using his phone as a flashlight for something and I was going to ask, "What in hell are you doing?" but did not. Glen could not find any trace of the mouse he saw, if indeed it was a mouse. He went into his bathroom which is right off of our bedroom, and on the floor there he saw a bullfrog that had been wounded. 
What? 
He swears that whatever ran across my bed did not hop but scurried. Ran like...a mouse. 
But there was the frog. Obviously brought in by a cat. 
Jack, most likely. 
And so he took the frog outside and knowing he could not go back to sleep after all of that, he got up. 
He told me about all of it when I got up and he was still completely mystified as to what in hell had actually happened. I couldn't believe I'd mostly slept through it all. 

When I went to make the bed later on, I found muddy prints on the blanket and sheets as if Jack had indeed brought something in and jumped on the bed to give it to us. 

Glen is still mystified and boggling over this event and as I just told him, "It's like a fairy tale." 

But what it really reminds me off is Lily yelling, "Too much nature!" when she was confronted with several critters one morning before dawn when she got up to go to work. That has become a sort of tagline and we use it only in the most appropriate of situations. 
I believe this would be one of them. 

**************

Thirty-four years ago right now I was pretty sure I was about to go into labor with my last baby who turned out to be Jessie. I was right. The anniversary times of my babies' births are a sort of holy thing to me. I remember all of those moments- the feelings, the pain, the ecstasy, the joy. 

And so it is now. 


Love...Ms. Moon


31 comments:

  1. Too much nature indeed, that would spook the heck out of me! Treaders

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    1. Well, we do sort of live in the woods even though there are houses on three sides around us.

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  2. That's hilarious, too much nature. I'm guessing finding critters in her shoes..

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    1. I think a bat may have been involved.

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    2. And a roach. And Boud, I think it was her underwear, not her shoes that the roach was in. The bat was on the wall. Thanks for reminding me, Hank.

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  3. I guess if a hot enough fire is built under a frog’s butt he can run. A gift from a cat though no matter how crittery deserves high praise indeed. Your post made me laugh because I made a loaf of sourdough bread to proof overnight and put black beans to soak not five minutes ago. XOR

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  4. My aunt lives in Far North Queensland and has to check the toilet bowl when she goes to make sure there are no green tree frogs lurking in there. Another reason to avoid any climate vaguely tropical!

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    1. not to memtion nests of snakes and/or cockroaches at the base of banana palms.

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    2. Well, I guess I love the tropics and semi-tropics so much that I don't really mind the critters that much. Mosquitoes are worse to deal with than anything, honestly.

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  5. My cats were gift givers, too, and after they populated the mouse contingent in the house, they started with little green garden snakes. That was enough; we shut the cat door.

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    1. I've found snakes in my house but I'm not at all sure the cats brought them in.

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  6. that is the one thing i do not miss about having our cats be alive...bringing in rats. EW! Or semi eaten shrews and mice. Birds were another issue i hated about having out door cats. Cats nature is too much nature!! If ever i get a basket full of kittens, I will keep them indoors and make a catio for them.

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    1. The vet suggested that Jessie's husband could make a catio for their semi-feral cat. She laughed and laughed. But I can see the wisdom of it. Cats really are a terrible problem when it comes to the killing of birds. I feel guilty.

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  7. rather disconcerting, especially in the middle of the night......but..... everyone is alive and well, if flummoxed. Cat's don't usually mess with frogs or toads so I'm surprised.....I think there *was* a mouse at one point! Can't even begin on our own mouse *journey*......one(or more) in the pantry that ate half of a yam in the past 2 days....... and 2 I caught in traps behind woodstove and one in the guest bedroom. I'm having mouse wars, and with no cat....... *I* am the predator now! LOL. It's a constant battle here that comes in waves..........Enjoy your bread and your bean soup.....wish I was there
    Susan M

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    1. PS Sheba must be getting used to you.....I see she sat still for the camera!
      Susan M

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    2. Even with two cats I find mousing droppings in a kitchen drawer. I have a feeling I'd die of shock if I knew how many mice actually live with us. But at least they don't chew through the packages in the pantry which I have had mice do. Even Tupperware!
      Sheba is about 1/100th less afraid of me. I took that picture through the screen. If I open the door she flees.

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  8. I barely remember the pain of birthing, I had short labours and easy deliveries, so it was over and done with in time to have lunch so to speak.
    I need to be mopping too but just can't be bothered. A quick sweep will do.

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    1. If I'd had easy labors I probably would have had a lot more children. So many the long, hard ones were good for me.
      Jessie and Lily have much shorter labors than I did. Literally done in time for lunch on several occasions!

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  9. Oooo! That would wake me up and keep me awake - a mouse in the bed!
    Happy Birthday to Jessie! My youngest, Maggie, is 34 years old this year too! But I do remember when she was born and where I was when labor started and how surprised I was when they said, "it's a girl!" (I had 4 boys.)

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    1. I think it's funny that Glen didn't really wake me up to tell me about the mouse but HE got up for sure.
      That's funny that our babies are both thirty-four this year. And that you have a Maggie.

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  10. Could it have been a lizard? Maybe Jack brought you a couple of critters during the night. He's a good provider!

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    1. Well Glen SAW the frog for sure. A mouse is believable. You've been to Lloyd. You know.

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  11. Happy birthday to Jessie. Cat got her a not quite grown chickadee last week. I found it just inside the back door where she likes to lay and watch the bird feeder. I tell her not to kill the birds. or the frogs. mostly she listens.

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    1. I never see my cats hunting but who knows that they do at night? And I have found the half-eaten bodies of dead squirrels on the porch.

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  12. 'Too much nature!' That will come in handy the next time a bat gets in the house.

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  13. FRESCA here.
    I looked up Fabuloso (we use it at work too) and read this hilarious description of the importance of its “fresh” (chemical) odor:
    “1980. Our story begins in Venezuela in the 80's —a time in which cleaning supplies lacked fragrance and distinction. No matter how hard anyone scrubbed, the fragrance simply would not last. Making it so their hard work would many times go unnoticed.”
    https://www.fabuloso.com › our-story

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    1. Haha! To me it smells like Mexico because they clean everything with it. And hell yes- I do not want my hard work to go unnoticed. In fact, I have often thought about just spraying a little bit of the stuff around to fool my husband into thinking I've been cleaning. He'd believe it.

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  14. Happy birthday beautiful Jessie!

    And you, Mary Moon, are my hero. I am rodent phobic, no really I am, and if a mouse had run across my blanket as I slept I think I would have to move houses. It's irrational, probably past life sh*t. But you? You shrug and take it in stride. Boss woman. And your kitchen floor is gleaming!

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    1. Well trust me- if I had seen the mouse I would not be so sanguine about it. But I slept right through the scurrying. I know there are mice in the house and I can deal with that but rats? NO! They scare me to death.
      The kitchen floor is already dirty again.
      Sigh.

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