Being Outside

 Every year that Tievine morning glory grows right there on that fence and every year Mr. Moon is perturbed about it. He's right to be. That stuff will spread like...well, everything else in this yard. 
But it's so pretty! And I do try to pull it but I never do get it all. 

We just got home from the river a little while ago. We both worked outside today and it was hell-hot again and hell-humid again too. But knowing how many people were going to be out celebrating Labor Day, we decided to stay home and just labor. Which made me happy. I picked more peas and did more weeding and cleaned out more of the growing bags, pulling the remaining brown, dried stalks of the tomatoes. So that's done. I also pulled zinnias which were done for this summer. I hate pulling plants that have any life left in them at all which is ridiculous so I left some peppers and eggplants, even though what they're giving me is pathetic. The field pea plants are being like the rattlesnake beans this year, in that they just don't want to quit producing. I did pull one row that was obviously over any chance of having the energy to make more peas. And while I was cleaning out the tomatoes, I found this in one of the growing bags that I'd tossed some zinnia seeds in little over a month ago. 

Now if that's the only one I get from that variety, it'll still have been worth it. I felt like I'd been kissed when I saw it. 

It's so dry here right now, along with the heat, and so after I hit the wall on my heat tolerance, I turned on the sprinklers and gave the peas a wet blessing. They deserve it. 

Mr. Moon spent his time outside cutting back bamboo and other plants, clearing areas that needed clearing. He's doing a beautiful thing which is that he's making it possible to actually see the truly ancient oak in the front yard from the street. I'll get some pictures soon. I love that tree with all my heart. It is mighty. 

We had smoked mullet with mustard and crackers and some okra and tomatoes for our lunch. The perfect lunch! There's more mullet that I'm going to fry tomorrow night. I'm deviating from the all seafood menu tonight and going to make some oven-barbecued chicken. That sounds Labor Day-ish, right? I will actually pan-fry the mullet when I cook it, although I did the snapper in the air-fryer last night and it was very good. But somehow, mullet just seems to need to be fried in oil, or, if we're not being dainty about it, grease. It will actually be oil but grease just sounds more authentic somehow. If I were a real, true MeeMaw, I would be using some bacon grease to fry that mullet in but I'm not a real, true MeeMaw, I'm a MerMer.

Anyway, after our outdoor laboring, we knew we had to get to the river to cool our bodies. I have to tell you that Mr. Moon was actually cranky. Yes, the man can be cranky despite his usual almost infinite patience. And he had overdone it working in the yard, as usual, and it showed. I drove us in my car and I will admit to driving over the speed limit because I wanted (nay, I needed) to get him cooled down as quickly as possible. By the time we got there, it wasn't very crowded and it was more families than saber-toothed tiger hunter wannabes. We plunged in many times and spent the rest of the time just standing in the water and as our core temperatures dropped, our spirits were restored and soon we could laugh about it all again. 

So I'm saying we had a great day. I'm feeling content and easy with it all and as I walked from my bathroom where I changed out of my bathing suit through our bedroom, the laundry room, guest room and dining room, I thought again for probably the ten thousandth time how much I love my house. How the very sight of these old, so-familiar rooms just makes me happy. 

Here's a picture that I took before we went to the river. 

I have decided that the best way to get a halfway decent picture of a butterfly is to just keep snapping. Okay, it's not all completely in focus but some of it is. What an amazingly fancy beauty. 

Love...Ms. Moon