Probably Too Much Over-Thinking

That fancy beauty is a Gulf Fritillary and there are many of them around at this time of year. It is heartening to see them. I liked the way this one looked on the rather peachy-colored zinnia, so many different shades of orange in there. I took that picture when I took the compost out and went into the garden to pick the few cherry tomatoes still fruiting. The summer garden is just about done for the year. It's too hot, I think, for much to be happening there. But the zinnias are happy and that's another thing I love about them. Despite the horrible heat and the fact that they haven't gotten much water lately, they continue to grow and bloom with cheerful faces that offer themselves to the butterflies. 

I almost hate to cut them and bring them in but I leave plenty for the pollinators.

Maybe one of these summers I'll plant the entire summer garden in nothing but zinnias. It'll be like a field of sunflowers, only in all the colors. I could fill the house with them, every room! Zinnias in every vase and vessel. I think that's something I need to ponder. 

I did mostly catch-up things here today. I washed a lot of laundry and of course our sheets were involved in that. I could not bring myself to hang them outside. It is that hot. Which is terribly ironic, isn't it? I will try to do better. There is just no sense in heating up the house with the dryer to avoid a few minutes of sweating under the clothesline. I also watered all of the porch plants and the potted plants in the back yard that needed some water love. 

I knew I needed to make a shopping run and so I did that although I had to force myself to put on a bra again and go out in public. I made the mistake of going to T.J. Maxx and that's a long story which involves purses because you know me and purses. The last two purses I bought have been disappointments to me. One of them I do like very much but it is not a backpack bag and it seems to me that I have become a backpack bag woman, monogamous in my love. The backpack bag I bought last is entirely suitable in all ways except for the straps which are not fastened at the top like most backpack straps, but go freely through metal rings which means that every time you put the bag on, you have to adjust the straps and get them even and it's a pain in the ass. I thought I'd get used to it, but I haven't and don't think I can. 
Design flaw, for sure. 

I love the purse that Jessie got back in May for her birthday and so I looked those up online and by golly, the same purse purchased at TJ Maxx for around seventy dollars or less can only be acquired everywhere else I've seen for about a hundred dollars more than that. Good Lord! I tried TJ Maxx online but they had none of those, of course. So I decided to stop by the store when I was in Tallahassee and there were none there either. Nor were there any other purses I liked. At all. 
I am picky. 
But after I carefully examined each and every purse, I felt the irrational need to walk around the store and don't ask me why. I don't need a damn thing. Turns out I didn't want a damn thing either. 

Trader Joe's is right next to TJ Maxx which I just realized share a set of initials. How funny! I bought artichokes and a very limp-looking basil plant as mine is dead, dead, dead, murdered by heat, and some blue cheese and bananas. Then on to Costco where I bought lemons and some of their delicious parmesan and rosemary bread, and then on to Publix where I picked up a prescription and got a few other things we needed like milk. I also returned a library book. 
Isn't this fascinating? Are you on the edge of your seat yet? 
I doubt it. 

I wanted basil because Vergil's mother gave us the most gorgeous tomato from her garden. One of her first of the year. And I wanted to honor it with a Caprese salad. It's far too beautiful to just chunk up in a salad. Mr. Moon was going to use it this morning to make a toasted cheese and tomato sandwich but I would not let him. Far too plebeian a use for this tomato which is going to be the very best tomato of the season, I know without a doubt. 

The picture below is of a Japanese glory bower that I have growing in the front yard beside a giant oak. 

When my next door neighbor moved to California, years ago, and no one was living in the house, I went over and dug up a few of those plants from her yard and transplanted them to mine. The regular glory bower is one of the banes of my life, as it is invasive like so many other things in this yard and when I realized that I had added a different sort of glory bower to the mix, I wondered what in hell I had done. But this variety seems to be far less prone to spreading. I hope that is true. I should probably pull it anyway but for right this second, I am loving it. It is a glorious plant and that bloom is probably two feet in length.

And so that is that. My Friday. I feel as if I've accomplished enough to accept my right to air and salt. You may laugh but this is a big thing to me. To feel as if I have a right to be here. I have to tell you that when I was at TJ Maxx, looking at shoes, I thought to myself, "Woman, you should be shopping for shoes for people who cannot afford them. What a ridiculous waste of time you're spending."

We humans are the top-dog invasive species, aren't we? Sometimes we're so pretty and even glorious that it almost justifies our existence here. 

But I don't know. I don't know shit. 

Happy Friday, y'all! 

Love...Ms. Moon