All Is Well Here In Lloyd At Least

This may be one of my favorite photos I've ever taken. Can you see what I was trying to get a picture of? 
Here. Let me enlarge and crop.

The anoles have recently hatched and I have been trying so hard to get a photo of one of them. There are several problems with this though, one being that they're so tiny and they disguise so well that it's hard to see them in the first place and the other being they move like they have tiny rockets on their toes. And boy, are they scaredy cats.
So there I was, picking basil to put in a vase to root and also, as a little aromatic house greenery

when I saw that darling baby on a leaf and, again, trying not to scare the little creature I used one stealthy hand to try and get a decent close-up but by the time I got around to taking the actual picture, the anole had run up the fence. And I honestly do not want to terrify such an innocent creature who's just looking for yummy ants or gnats or something to eat. So I left it alone and wished it luck. 

Mr. Moon decided this morning to take his little boat out on the St. Mark's River and making that decision cheered him up so much. "I think it'll be good for me," he said. 
I agreed. 
And so that's what he did and he had a very nice day out on the water. He sent me a picture which is fairly hard to parse but here it is. 

It's a manatee and the trees are a reflection of the trees on the bank. He said he saw it when it was quite a distance from the boat and thought he was seeing an alligator. The manatee swam straight towards him and Glen was thinking that was one very aggressive gator when he realized what it truly was. The fact that the manatee swam to his boat so purposefully makes me think people have been feeding it although you can see scars on its back which were made by boat propellers and you would think the seacow would have been more leery of boats. This is so dreadfully common though, that people who study manatees identify individuals by the prop marks on their backs. And of course, many die from the wounds. There are sections of rivers which are clearly marked as no wake zones in order to prevent this but let's face it- people are assholes. And the assholes in this case are often complete jerks who have speedboats who don't feel that the no wake zone rule applies to them and they speed as fast as they can to express their pride and power. I guess. 
Anyway, he had a very fine day and I'm so glad he took the time to go do something that made him very happy. 

I did too, but it wasn't nearly as exciting. I actually and really cut and pulled a bunch of pumpkin vines which almost ripped my heart out but I did it and that was that. 
Not all of them! But quite a few. And then I weeded and cleared a spot that gets a lot of sun, added in compost and mixed it in and planted two rows of mustard greens. One row is a variety called "India Southern Giant Curled" and the other is an heirloom variety called "Green Wave." 

And then I turned the sprinkler on for a few hours to water them in. I really love mustard greens. While collards are very sturdy greens, mustards are more delicate and do not take as much time to cook. Like spinach but not quite. They cook down a lot which is also like spinach. Collards cook down too but not nearly as much as some greens. I like mustard greens cooked with other greens and in fact, I just love to make a pot of mixed greens, figuring that they all have different nutritional value and they also have their own flavors and textures which is nice. 
But one of the best things about mustard greens is that if you pick them when they're young and tender, they are fantastic raw in salads. They are hot and spicy. Just like...mustard. 
Good mustard. 

It was hotter in the garden today than yesterday because it wasn't overcast in the least while yesterday it was. But I got done what I got done and little by little, I will get this fall garden planted. 

I hung my sheets on the line again today. There is just nothing like line-dried sheets. I like line-dried towels too, although my husband is not as fond of them. He likes the way dryer-dried towels are softer. I feel like the stiffer, less soft ones are more absorbent. Or maybe I just don't mind them not being soft. But we do agree on the sheets. 
Maurice came out to join me at the clothesline. She didn't have a word to say concerning my clothes-pinning techniques. She just rolled about in the hot sandy dirt for a few minutes and then took a nap under the chair I put my clothes basket on. 

Here's a funny Maurice fact- Mark, our beloved friend and house/cat/crow sitter introduced her to a squeezable sort of treat which she took to like Glen takes to chocolate chip cookies. So I've been giving her a little container of that every evening but I tried an experiment tonight. I know she loves yogurt. Not plain yogurt. Get out of here with your plain yogurt. She likes the sweet kind with fruit. I was in the mood for a lemon-flavored yogurt myself and I gave her a few spoonfuls of it and she ate every visible bit of it. I have no idea where she developed a taste for this. She'll turn up her nose at tuna and chicken and all sorts of things cats are supposed to like but give that girl some blueberry yogurt and she is happy. 
I truly wonder what her childhood was like. 

I did some ironing and finished watching The Bear which is depressing. The Bear isn't depressing. The fact that I've finished the entire series is depressing. 
Okay. Sometimes The Bear is depressing. But it's also a whole lot of other human-emotion things ranging from joy to wonder to panic to regret to...well, all that human emotion stuff. 
Knowing me, I'll probably watch it again. 
One of the things I ironed is a dress that I bought so many years ago at Goodwill. So Lord knows how old it is. 
Despite the fact that it never really quite fit me, I could not get rid of it because I loved it so much. Especially the color which is a sort of purplish blue or blueish purple or, hell, I don't know. But I love it. It's linen and sits easy on my body now. It has no pockets which is its only flaw but I love it enough to overlook that when I wear it. 

It doesn't look like much on the hanger and it may not look like much on me but something about it feels like it was made for me. And that was one of the things I ironed. 

Mr. Moon is home. Martinis have been made. We're eating leftovers tonight and by the way- the shrimp salad was excellent and the heirloom peasant oat cake bread? It was not bad. I sliced it very thin, put out the butter, and all that fiber tasted pretty darn good. So I will heat some of that up tonight and along with the beans I cooked a few days ago and the rest of the shrimp salad, I think we'll survive. 

Okay. This bed looks so good I have to show you.

I think maybe we should sleep in the guest room in order not to mess it up. What do you think? 

Happy Friday, y'all. 

Love...Ms. Moon