A Day Not Wasted

I feel very good about what I've gotten accomplished today. My goal was to get the rest of the fall garden planted and although I did not achieve that, I did good work. And surprisingly, it was not Maurice who followed me out to the garden but Jack. I'm not sure he's ever done that before. I was quite surprised to look up from my hoeing to see him napping there. "Jack!" I said. He startled and raised his head and then a butterfly flew over him and he followed its progress with his eyes but didn't bother to move. 
That is Jack. He is such a fine cat. When I wake up in the middle of the night or the early, early morning, he comes right to me and positions his head right under my hand to be petted and of course, in doing that, offers comfort to me. He makes me feel as if I am not alone with those dark-of-the-night thoughts. Of course, he's getting something out of the exchange too, but still- he's a good boy. 

So I managed to plant eight collard plants, two rows of arugula, a row of mustard greens, and a row of carrots. I did find the type of carrots I like so much which are the heirloom ones that come in a variety of colors. Here is their row. 

And look! It's only a little crooked! I am trying very hard this year to plant my rows with more attention. As we all know, Glen's rows are straight and true while mine tend to wiggle and veer into different directions and I would not care a bit but I know it drives him crazy. Last year, he marked them for me so they were mostly straight but today he is trying to get the old barn ready for its new roof. Our house is getting one too! But there is some wood that needs replacing on the barn before the roof can be put on so he and our friend Chip have been tending to that all day, leaving me to putter in the garden on my own. I made the man promise not to laugh at my rows. "I know they drive you crazy," I told him. I think it literally hurts him to see a garden where the plants grow higglety-pigglety, meandering about like an old, old river. 
He promised me today, though, that he would not care. He would not say a word. 
I am not quite sure that either of those things will be true but I am doing my best. 

So I still have two types of mesclun to plant, some bibb lettuce, the turnip greens, and...KALE! He went out of his way to go to the totally not hippie-dippy Tallahassee Nurseries and got me a large packet of the mixed variety seeds. 

Part of what I did in the garden today was to pull up the last of the pepper plants. I felt a little guilty because they have not entirely stopped producing yet. 

But I pulled them anyway. I need that space for a row of lettuces. Or, perhaps... kale. 

So all of that felt very good and I turned on the sprinklers for awhile. Just long enough to get those tiny little seeds watered in. 

Via text today, Lily reminded me of another great part of the party last night which was how, when we were all taking turns saying what we love about August, Levon kept saying things like, "Perfectly said!" and "Very true!" I did recall that when August was opening his presents, Levon at one point, was obviously quite impressed and said, "My word!" 
Who is this child? Has he been reading Dickens? 
And I also learned that after we left, Maggie said in a big theatrical voice (this is according to her mother), "Why don't you just give me away, Mooooom?" 
She was angling to get Jessie to keep her. Which is crazy because she loves her mommy more than anything in this world. 
That child. They are all so funny. 

I must have liked a post on Facebook about gorillas or chimps or something because suddenly, I am getting dozens of pictures of great apes and honestly, I love them. As a mother, I can so perfectly relate to all of them, from the ones that show a mother gorilla gazing into her infant's eyes with adoration, or kissing the little one on the head, to the ones like this. 

I think that's a dad with two of his offspring who are using him as playground equipment. Am I seeing that right? Whatever's going on, the expression on his face is as familiar to me as anything I've ever seen on a human. 
"Kids," he's saying. "If they weren't so cute, I'd..."

Yeah. I know. 

I've been thinking a whole lot about the whole body-image, weight/eating thing again but I don't think I have the energy tonight to tackle that. Instead, I suppose I better go make dinner. 
Oh, the irony is rich. 
But one must eat. And it might as well be a pleasure as well as fuel and nutrition. 
Or so I tell myself. And in planting a garden, I suppose that I am receiving pleasure from the ground to the tongue because I do so very much love those freshly made rows with their tiny seeds tucked and patted into them, believing with all of my heart that they will swell and grow into foods that will feed us well, both in body and in soul. 

Life is strange and it is sometimes beautiful.

Love...Ms. Moon