Many, Many Pictures: More Life In Lloyd

That's a picture of the magnolia blossom that I took last night with the hallway light behind it. I can't stop looking at it, loving it. So ethereal, so luscious. The scent of it is enough to make you drunk and hits you from from a room away. Could I ever live in a place where these magnolias cannot grow? 
I am not sure.

Today was fun. And funny. Mr. Moon asked me if I'd like to go to Monticello for lunch with him. He wanted to buy crickets to use as bait on a river fishing trip tomorrow. He also needed to pay a bill and pick up a bunch of raw peanuts he'd ordered at the Farmers Market. 
Why not?
I decided we should try someplace different for lunch today and so I googled restaurants in Monticello, Florida and along with the ones I already know so well- Casa Grande (i.e. The Mexican), The Rev, The Brickhouse Eatery, Pizza Hut, and Burger King, there were a few I'd never heard of including Klucker's Fried Chicken and Roscoe's Food For the Soul. 
Now I perked up at that last one. It's located right next to the Winn Dixie in the Winn Dixie shopping center where the Asian restaurant used to be that had the best Buddha's Delight. Anyway, I looked at the menu and it looked good to me and had all the things a southern girl could ask for from ribs to catfish to collards to banana pudding. So off we went, with the intention of trying Roscoe's. 

First we went to the Farmer's Market which is always a treat. 

Can you see Mr. Moon?

Both sides now.

So tidy. 

Glen got his peanuts which means I'll be roasting again, and I got three pepper plants and an eggplant plant. Then we toodled off down neighborhood backroads to Roscoe's. I have to tell you that Monticello has an awful lot of charm to it. 
However, the Winn Dixie shopping center is not charming in the least. Just about all of the stores are closed except for a nail salon and a store-front church and Roscoe's. Oh. And a liquor store. But having had some of the best food I've ever eaten in the most unlikely of places, I was not daunted by the location at all. 

And things looked promising when we walked in. Great menu, pictures of celebrities with Roscoe all over the walls, 

and red-checked oil cloth tablecloths over the plastic tables with ketchup, hot sauce, and pepper vinegar in the middle of each one. 
As they should be.
So we ordered. I got a catfish sandwich and potato salad which I have been craving, and Mr. Moon got the two-ribs lunch special with collard greens. I asked the woman at the counter who Roscoe was because I was pretty sure that whoever he was, he had not met the people pictured with him in Monticello, Florida. Turns out that the "flagship" restaurant is in Anchorage, Alaska and I guess if you're a celebrity looking for soul food that far up north, you go see Roscoe. 

The food came out and was served, as expected, in foam take-away containers except for my potato salad which was oddly served in a cardboard boat-shaped container. Here is what a southern fried catfish sandwich looks like. 

Except that it generally comes on plain white bread. So this was fancy. There were lettuce and tomatoes and pickles and onions under that toasted bread. And at first I thought it was okay and then I realized that some of the fish was NOT COOKED ALL THE WAY and honey, catfish ain't ahi tuna. I just couldn't. The potato salad was good though, as was the tomato on the sandwich. So I did not eat much of the sandwich but wrapped it up to bring home to Sheeba as Jack and Maurice are only interested in cheap cat food and lunch meat. Mr. Moon's ribs were tough and perhaps not done either. When the counter lady asked if everything was okay, I told the truth and shamed the devil and said, "Well. Not really. My fish wasn't quite cooked enough." She went back to the kitchen and the next thing I know, a very young woman who could have passed for sixteen if she'd been wearing her mama's lipstick, came out and stood by our table and said, "I hear there's a problem with the sandwich." 
I was a little frightened of her although she was a mere slip of a thing. Her demeanor was not humble, shall we say. 
"There were raw parts in it," I said, as sweetly as possible. 

She looked at me like she seriously doubted that and said, "Do you want another one?"
"No, thanks!" I chirped. 
And she turned on her heel and went back to the kitchen. 
Mr. Moon said not a word about his ribs. Also? The collards were bitter and that is a sin. 

So we won't be going back to Roscoe's. 

We went on to pay the bill and then to get the crickets. They come from a sporting goods store and I'd never been in it so I wandered in today just to see what it looked like. After about three minutes I had to leave. I told Mr. Moon that if you looked up "toxic masculinity" in the dictionary, they would have a picture of that store. But if you ever need to buy a child a wood and metal toy rifle, I know where to get one. 

When we got home Mr. Moon made rows for me to plant crowder peas. I asked him to do that because he does love straight rows as we all know. And then he took off to go put some more finish on my folding table and I weeded and planted the peas. 
Look how straight the rows are:

I am not sure if those peas are going to come up or not because some of them are from last year and some may actually be older than that. I soaked them last night though and we shall see. 
The beans growing up the fencing behind them are starting to bloom. 

And the tomatoes are coming along. 

After I came in the house and out to the back porch I found Maurice in a place I'd never seen her before. 

That is a brass or copper or whatever-metal vessel that I sometimes plant something in. In fact, is has dirt in it. And I see that she has been in a fight and has wounds. Poor baby. I guess she feels safe in there. I don't know but she's still there. One more trauma for that baby to go through. 

Here's what that magnolia looks like right now. 

Isn't it a wonder? 

Tomorrow is a MerMer day. I'll be picking Levon and August up from school. I think that Levon and I may go see Auntie May for lunch and I'm very grateful to be back into my life as small and simple as it is. 

I better get in the kitchen and fix our supper. I'll have the company of a cage full of crickets happily chirping and dining on slices of potato. 

Y'all take care. 

Love...Ms. Moon