Mr. Moon took the Weatherfords out scalloping today. We have a scallop season here and a certain amount of them can be taken per person or per boat. I don't know. These are the small bay scallops, not the large sea scallops but they taste very much the same only sweeter and more tender. Here's what they look like underwater.
As I always say, they have Paul Newman eyes. And lots of them.
As you probably know by now, Glen Moon loves to get food from the woods and the seas and the rivers and the lakes and scalloping is a once a year opportunity to gather those sweet little delicacies. After a quick blog search I see that I've written many, many posts about scalloping, all of which have mentioned the Paul Newman thing and if you'd like to know any more about how one goes about scalloping, just do a blog search of your own and you will be taken to a wide variety of those posts.
I was invited to join the group today but I stayed home. There's no covering on that boat and I was just not in the mood to bake in the sun all day. Of course I would have spent a lot of time in the water, too, but I decided it would be just fine for them to have a Boppy day doing a Boppy activity on Boppy's boat. With Boppy.
They had a good day, actually getting quite a few scallops. Here are some pictures.
It looks to me like everyone had a good time and Jessie reports that they did and that the boys loved it.
I think it is so fabulous that those little guys get to experience and do the same things their daddy did when he was a boy and the same things their mama did when she was a girl.
So it was a very fine day for them. I know Mr. Moon was so happy to be able to take them.
Meanwhile, back here at the ranch, I basically attempted to succumb to heat stroke by working in the garden but I could not go one more day without doing something about the mess it was in. I cleared a good strip where the zinnias and peas were. The zinnias are done, the peas as well.
Instead of gathering and keeping the heads of the spent zinnias for seeds, I just pinched and rolled them between my fingers and spread them on the dirt in hopes that they'll be back next year.
I am lazy.
Actually, no I am not. But why not skip a few steps and let next year's plants come up on their own? I scattered some in the kitchen garden too.
All I could handle outside was about two hours and that was plenty for me. I didn't even wait until I started feeling weird this time. There's plenty more weeding and clearing to do but at least I've made a start. I need more mulching material. I'll have to consult with the mulch guy on that one.
When I came in and cooled off, I watched a few more episodes of "The Bear" while I hemmed a few more sweat rags I make from laundered cheesecloth. Those things are great. Such a very simple thing which serves such a utilitarian purpose.
I've been a little down today. A little anxious. I don't want to feel this way. I really don't. I would so much rather feel the way I've been feeling the last few weeks which is pretty darn content and even happy but I no more know how to make that happen than I know how I've somehow let the anxiety back in. I certainly don't go to bed and turn out the light and think to myself, "Gee. I believe that tomorrow I'd like to wake up a little depressed and worried."
I probably should have gone scalloping.
So anyway, here's a pretty funny picture of what's going on with my hair. I lost quite a bit of it when my weight loss was at its most dramatic and now it seems to be trying to grow back which is pretty darn thoughtful of it.
However.
And yes, those are my gardening-without-gloves fingernails.
Do you see the little wisps of gray hair? They're about, what? four inches long now? And that is happening all over my head.
Dear god, I am going to have my granny's hair.
La-di-dah.
La. Dee. Fucking Dah.
The sooner I have all white hair, the happier I'll be.
And look how freaking curly it is!
What did Mary Englebreit say?
Life's too mysterious to take too serious.
Amen.
Love...Ms. Moon
You have a halo of silver!
ReplyDeleteI lost a bit of hair as well but I wear mine very short so not too noticeable (and it was quite plentiful to start with).
I am sorry to hear about the anxiety creeping back in. Hopefully only a fleeting visit.
I think everyone I know who's lost a significant amount of weight on these drugs has lost some hair. I am encouraged to see some growing back though.
DeleteOh, the anxiety. Hello darkness my old friend.
“Life is just a bowl of cherries
ReplyDeleteDon’t take it serious
Life’s too mysterious…”
A song from 1931
Margaret
Thank you! Never heard that song. Do you know who wrote it?
DeleteMusic, Ray Henderson, lyrics by Lee Brown. Both Ethel Merman and Rudy Vallee popularized it. I’ll bet if you listen to it, you’ll recognize it. M
DeleteI love that your hair is growing back. Mine is wavy/curly when short, but I hate going to the hairdresser so I keep it long and I don't mind it being multicoloured still, though all white will be interesting too.
ReplyDeleteThe scallopers are having so much fun! I haven't had scallops in years, I might look for them on a menu next time I eat out.
I used to roll the seed heads of flowers and let the seeds fall to grow again, but too many got eaten by birds or whatever else and I got very few new plants. I hope your zinnias do better. Thank you for visiting my blog to see the resoled sneakers.
The women in my family are notorious for becoming white-headed at an early age and I was looking forward to that. Unfortunately, it has not turned out to be true for me. Too late now for it to be early!
DeleteWell, if the birds would like some of my zinnia seeds, I will be happy to share. I must have scattered at least a few hundred.
Thank YOU for posting those pictures!
I like the concept of letting flowers reseed, but I think the birds are onto it.
ReplyDeleteI still have dark hair at the back but I look white in photos! Far from uniform color, but curls still evident. I didn't know you'd lost hair as well as weight.
Yes. When a person loses a lot of weight, hair usually gets lost too. At least some of it. Thankfully, I am not as vain as I used to be about my hair but I will say that when I look at old pictures of me, I grieve a little for that long, thick hair.
DeleteYour curls, your neck, sexiest thing I have seen all week.
ReplyDeleteThe scallop photo of the bluest blue, striking, I think that I might not be able to eat them because- too pretty.
So is Jessie.
Ooh. You are making me blush. I think those curls are pretty cute in a poodle-y old lady way.
DeleteI doubt hardly anyone eating scallops knows about those blue eyes. They're pretty gorgeous, aren't they?
Jessie's a glory of a girl.
Interesting about your zinnias giving out - they keep going here in Virginia until it frosts if they get deadheaded and watered. And don't get mildew. So maybe it's more tenuous than I think. But we still have a ton of them right now. Also a riot of 4 o'clocks, which I plant every year plus they come up as volunteers, so we are on our way to an all zinnias/4 o'clocks/cannas garden. It's actually pretty nice. And yes, all white hair, wouldn't it be lovely? Mine is sort of khaki (that can't be spelled right) after being red for years, and it's really pretty ugly.
ReplyDeleteCheers,
Ceci
mind those 4 o'clocks...down here they comPLETELY take over and mine have done just that. it is a jungle out there. an impenetrable one
DeleteI think our heat eventually just wears out our zinnias. They start out so green and juicy and then they get browner and brittler and at that point, there is little use to keeping them in the ground.
DeleteI have 4'clocks that come up here every year too. I didn't plant them so they've been here for at least twenty three years.
And Anonymous- mine used to be more profuse than they are now. Not sure why.
honestly, it is difficult NOT to be anxious and depressed with the state of things...so I walk my dogs, I even go to the GYM these days, I ignore the tide of 4 o'clocks and I look forward to our pottery chats coming back this week!
ReplyDeleteYou're going to the GYM! I am so proud of you. I know Gentleman Caller appreciates your company.
DeleteI think pottery starts a week from this coming Wednesday. Check the website.
Ain't it fun seeing ourselves aging! Kind of anyway. Hair is different textures with different colors...who would have thunk it! I can be a bit curly now that it's almost all white...but it took Forever to move beyond looking dirty white all the time, or even yellowish! Remember our grannies putting blue into their white hair? Hope the anxious spell goes through fast!
ReplyDeleteYes! There are many things we had known about aging and that everyone talks about. Skin and pains and forgetfulness and all of that but there are so many other things I simply did not expect at all.
DeleteOh yes! My granny and all her lady friends drove (or had their husbands drive them) from Roseland to Vero to get their hair set and permed and blued. It was a ritual. A Mr. Somebody was their hairdresser. I wish I could remember his name. It might have been Mr. Alexander.
That is something I have never done, scalloping. I've fished, crabbed, floundered, and even used a seine net.
ReplyDeleteMajor weeding is not getting done here. I'm wondering if I'll ever turn completely gray, still have more color than not.
You ARE still dark-headed! Is that common in your family?
DeleteScalloping can actually be pretty fun since you do it in fairly shallow water with a mask and snorkel and fins. The yuck part is shucking them. It's tedious.
My dad still had a lot of color when he died in his early 70s. My mother and sister went gray from blond. My younger brother, also on the blond side is almost completely gray. So I guess I take after my dad who had dark hair even though he was blond as a small boy. My joke is I was standing in the no gray line when all the other girls were standing in the boobs line before we incarnated.
DeleteThose are such terrific photos of the Scalloping Outing!
ReplyDeleteI believe a good time was had by all!
DeleteJessie's smile says the day scalloping was both great fun and successful.
ReplyDeleteScallops are delicious, and I suspect there will be a Moon extended family scallop meal in your future.
I find, hair sometimes gets brittle and breakage happens. Thankfully it all grows and changes over time. Your curls along the neckline are beautiful. If you cut your hair, would you have curls throughout?
Glen's doing all the shucking and I'm not sure how many there will actually be. I swear- whatever they charge for those tender little bits of heavenly seafood, it is not enough. The work that goes into getting them, the gas for the boat, the effort- it's all a lot.
DeleteI don't know about how curly my hair would be. It has gotten wavier over the years. Those curls at the back of my neck are quite surprising to me. How did this happen?
Scalloping looks like it was fun for all involved, though I would have opted to stay home like you. I am not a fan of baking on a boat. (Or baking anywhere, for that matter.) At least in the garden there's some shade or the opportunity to go inside.
ReplyDeleteMy stepsister's hair grew back curly after she had chemotherapy. I know losing weight is hardly the same thing, but I think dramatic changes to the body can often alter the way hair follicles work. Why this is true I do not know.
You are right about baking in the sun at home. But like I said- it's always possible to get in the water when you're scalloping, unlike deep sea fishing.
DeleteYes! I have seen people's hair change radically when it grows back in after chemotherapy. It's odd, isn't it?
I guess that perhaps when the body is stressed due to changes, it quits putting so much energy into trying to keep hair alive. I don't know that for sure at all. I do know that when I almost died after having mono when I was in high school, at least half my hair fell out. Some grew back, but not all. Luckily, I had very, very thick hair. It was like May's which is still glorious.
To avoid heat exhaustion may I suggest that you begin your gardening chores at the crack of dawn? This way you will dodge the heat of the day. According to my calculations, the sun currently rises in Lloyd at 7am but of course the sky is lightening long before then. May I propose that you get out by 6.30am.
ReplyDeleteYou can propose and suggest all you want, Mr. P.! I am not getting up at six a.m. Getting up at seven to get to pottery is just about my limit on how early I'll rise.
DeleteBut in reality, you are correct.
The scalloping trip sounds wonderful!
ReplyDeleteAnd you lasted longer in the garden than I did but I did manage to trim some bushes.
This time of year it's a good thing to get any chores done outside. It takes some powerful motivation, doesn't it?
Delete