Musings

 The only thing I did today that was worth mentioning was moving three pictures into our "new" bedroom. These are the pictures I feel I must have closest to me while I sleep. They are, I suppose, totems that make me feel more grounded in my own life so that when my dreams take me to places so far away, the pictures will be there, even in the dark, to call me home again to myself. 

The one I took a picture of is a painting that my Uncle Jimmy did when he was a boy, taking art lessons from Frank Baisden. I've talked about this picture and my Uncle Jimmy and Frank Baisden before. Both men were well-known and well-regarded by their peers, Frank as an artist, Uncle Jimmy as an architect and designer. But that picture was done when Jimmy was very young and I remember it always hanging over my grandmother's bed and when she died, I asked for it and my mother gave it to me. I love it so. I can still clearly see in my mind my granny lying on her bed with her hands clasped together on top of the bedspread for her nap, her glasses with the hated, bulky hearing aids built in on the dresser, her tiny shoes on the floor beside her, that picture always present. 
The other pictures I moved have other stories, of course. I did not take their pictures but I'm sure I have before. And now they are all back in the room where I am sleeping, keeping watch as I roam about the dream world, making sure of my safe return. 

Mr. Moon should be home soon. He left Louisiana this morning. Speaking of sleep- I don't think he's gotten a good night of it since he left. I think he will be glad to come back to his own bed. Maurice slept on his pillow last night. She misses him, I can tell. A little while ago she came to me as if for comfort, licked my face and kissed me on the lips which I have never had another cat do in my life. 
And then she wanted to tear my hand off. I always think of Where The Wild Things Are when she acts like this. Remember the part where the wild beasts tell Max, "We'll eat you up, we love you so?"
Now whether or not she really loves us so, I cannot tell you. But I can safely say that she is a wild thing. 

When I put that picture up above the mantle in the bedroom, I had to take down a mirror that I'd put there. It had been my grandfather's. On the back of it I found this.

I would know that block print handwriting anywhere. Granddaddy put his name on all of his belongings. Or, at least many of them. In my grandmother's recipe box which I also have, I have found warranties for things bought long, long ago, now completely lost to time, filled out in that same hand. He was a man of order and precision. I am sure he framed the picture that Uncle Jimmy painted. He was a fine carpenter, even though he'd lost all the fingers on his left hand in an accident with a saw when he was first training to be a cabinet maker. I don't think those missing fingers ever stopped him from doing a thing. 
I think back on him and he will always be a mystery to me. 

I worked some more on my overalls today. I picked some more peppers and greens and made a little venison meatloaf that I'll put in the oven when I have a better idea of when my husband will be home. I'll put some baking potatoes in the oven too and that meal is one that my mother and grandmother both served at least once a week. Mother experimented with her meat loaves. Those were the days when every newspaper and magazine printed recipes for dishes made with ground beef- the thrifty housewife's best friend. They were endless. There were cookbooks too. "A Hundred And One Ways To Cook With Ground Beef!" I remember the period of time when my my mother started using a recipe for meatloaf that contained a can of Campbell's vegetable soup. Even as a young child I was aware the finding letters of the alphabet in the meatloaf was not right somehow. But I don't have a whole lot of room to criticize. My own favorite recipe uses a packet of Lipton's Beefy-Onion soup in it. And ketchup. And Pepperidge Farm breadcrumbs. And also peppers and onions. 
But no noodles, shaped like letters or anything else. And also no bits of diced carrots or the occasional green pea. Honestly though, we ate that meatloaf and loved it. And although going to Europe when I was eighteen and then becoming a hippie and especially eating the hippie food at a restaurant in Denver called Hanuman's Conscious Cookery, and learning to love and cook the foods that are representative of the south inform the way I cook now, there are still times when I crave the things we ate when I was a child. Sometimes I'd love an iceberg lettuce salad with French dressing and sometimes, I crave a grilled cheese made with Wonder Bread and American cheese or Velveeta or a big bowl of Kraft macaroni and cheese. Other foods bring back memories although I do not truly care to go back and eat them- bologna sandwiches for one thing. My Lord but we ate a lot of bologna. I had a friend once who said that her mother had made bologna salad like tuna salad, substituting chopped bologna for the fish. I'll be quite happy if I never eat instant mashed potatoes again. Or frozen mixed vegetables. 
I'd eat a fish stick though. Or a Mexican Hat made with a slice of bologna as a base and then a scoop of real mashed potatoes, topped with cheese and then baked. 
Food represents so much to us, doesn't it? Sustenance, of course. Love. Comfort. Celebration.

Guilt. 

It's complicated. Just like all our human stuff. 

Love...Ms. Moon

A Short Lesson In Palm Trees

 So today I decided to trim the real palms. Sagos are not real palms, they are cycads. But the cabbage or Sabal palm (state tree of Florida) and the Canary Island date palms that I have ARE true palm trees. None of the ones on this property are huge by any means. I planted all of them myself. When we moved here, there were no palms at all on the property which I saw as a grievous error. Our friend Tom has given us four cabbage palms over the years and I myself planted two Canary Island date palms for reasons unknown to me. I have bitched about them here many times. If the sagos have evil needles, the Canary Island dates have wicked, wicked spikes. But with the long-handled loppers, I can trim them without too much danger. And so I did. That's the mess of trimmings I dumped on the burn pile today. 
Here's what they look like in the front yard from the porch after I finished halfway denuding them. 

This is not a good picture as I waited too late in the day to take it but that's what you get. The two foremost palms are the cabbage palms and before I trimmed them, getting through them to walk up the steps to the porch was like being in a jungle for one second. It's like you needed a machete...oh, wait...nope! No machete needed! Here's the clearing! Mr. Moon has made it quite well-known to me since I planted them that they are, in his opinion, too close together. My theory is that as they grow tall and stately, as they will over what is obviously going to be eons of time, their closeness will not be a problem. Here's what a full grown one looks like. 

I just read that these beauties grow six inches a year (and that's probably in sunnier conditions than mine are in by far) and so Mr. Moon and I will both be dead before my theory is proven as I know it will be if they are allowed to grow long enough. And tall enough, of course. 

I hacked them and the Canary Island date palms back quite a bit. Once I start lopping, it's sort of hard to stop. 

That was the big thing I did today and it wasn't really that big. 

I got some nice pictures from my husband. Not of the woods or a river or whatever they're hunting in or on but of the restaurant in New Orleans where they were having a delicious meal. First he sent me a picture of the menu and I, having looked at it, knew exactly what he'd order. 

And he did. 

A bowl of gumbo and a salad. I know my man. 
There were also oysters shared by all. 

He said they were "incredibly good." I shall have to get details when he comes home. 

Although I am not eating gourmet New Orleans' cuisine, I am happily struggling along on what I'm making here. Especially the salads. 

I also did some more mending on my favorite overalls today. This may be a hopeless attempt at saving them. I'm having to sew large patches over places that I can't even stitch together because the cloth is so very worn through. 
Sigh. 
But I'm giving it my best shot. And it is something to do while I watch TV that I would normally not watch when Mr. Moon is here to judge me. He came upon me last week watching "Selling Sunset" and I defended myself saying, "Okay, look. It's MY version of "Drag Racing." Which is a show he loves and no, RuPaul is not involved. However, men with mullets and decidedly strong southern accents are. And cars that make a lot of noise. 
As they drag race. 
He doesn't really judge me. He's not that kind of fella. I obviously judge myself. It's funny- Billy also watches "Selling Sunset" and we trade texts about the show. And life. 

I love Billy. But you already knew that. 

Well, I could just sit here and chat forever but I think I'll go rustle up my non-gourmet grub. You probably don't have all the time in the world even if I do. 

Take care. Stay safe. Stay warm. 

Love...Ms. Moon

Grateful Appreciation

There are so many roses blooming that I just had to pick some and bring them in. They are the old-fashioned kind of roses, soft and sweet as your granny's bosom and I have put these in the kitchen because I will smell them fifty times a day. 

I am a hunting widow again but as we all know, this is not something that disturbs me much. My time flows with the day, and I do a little of this and a little of that, considering what would make me happiest. Not that I always do what would make me happiest but I do some of that. 

Today I worked outside for awhile, doing actual and real yard work. I pruned back two roses that haven't bloomed in a year because they're in shade, and pulled the border grass threatening to encroach them. I need to move those roses to somewhere a little bit less shady and plant something more apt to thrive there.

Then I attacked the sago palms in front of the front porch which is an easy job but a dangerous one as the fronds are needled and come each with their own dose of mild toxin. But it didn't take me long and I managed not to get myself pierced by one of the poison darts. 

It does not look like winter here, does it? 

I still have not had the heart to pull my pepper plants. These are just a small percentage of the peppers growing now. 

It has been warmer today but it's supposed to get a little cooler this week. Such weird weather. My arugula, beautiful and healthy and the object of my love and desire (culinarily speaking, of course) looks to be in the process of bolting which I have been fearing the greens would do. But still, the garden looks pretty, although it is relatively sparsely planted. 

Plenty of greens for us. 

Food for the soul and the body.

I have washed the lettuces twice and they are wrapped tenderly in a kitchen towel in the refrigerator now, waiting to be made into salads. As for the roses- well, you know. 

It wasn't just roses and salad greens I picked today though. 

The heavy-headed beauty of the camellias thrills me. It just does. And I do not become jaded about it. 

Each and every blossom I bring in is appreciated and admired and enjoyed just as is each and every bite of salad I eat from our winter garden, slicked a tiny bit with olive oil, sweetened by a splash of balsamic, seasoned with nothing but salt, pepper, and fresh garlic, peeled and pressed. 

I think I'm hungry now.

Love...Ms. Moon

A Dreamy Birthday Dinner

Last night's birthday supper was about the most excitement I've experienced in years. It was like, well- a fiesta! I'd never been to this particular restaurant, or at least under its present ownership, and it would appear to be THE place to go on a Friday night. There was a large outside eating area with a massive umbrella covering almost the entire space. It was like a palapa except that it was an umbrella.
And there were lights strung up and there was very, very loud music playing and there were things for children to play on and children were indeed playing on them and the children were screaming in delight and happiness and the wild freedom of being out and outside on a Friday night in the dark! It smelled a little like the fair and reminded me a bit of it too. 
As you can see, Gibson and Owen have both recently had hair coloring done and Gibson now also has pierced ears, like his big brother. My darling wildlings. 
We joined Lily and Lauren and Jason and his mother and the children at a big table and the grown-ups ordered drinks, some neon, some not quite so colorful. Hell, Mr. Moon and I even got margaritas, but just the regular kind with good tequila and because they were served in glasses the size of hubcaps, we sipped slowly. 
And Maggie, because it was her birthday, got a virgin something-something that was as fancy as a princess could want. 

It was good to be with Jason and his mother, to let the children see and feel that we are all family, even though things have changed. And it was just nice. There was no unpleasantness and conversation flowed, chips and salsa shared, all was well. It took so long to get our food that I told Mr. Moon that it was like deja vu all over again, remembering lunch. But we managed not to die of starvation. And Maggie got to open the presents I'd brought her. 

The thing she's opening in that picture is a giant activity pad with stickers and I don't know what all. It seemed impressive. But the present she liked best that I gave her was a "busy book" of "Encanto" the Disney movie we watched recently. I hear that Maggie has watched it several times and goes around singing the songs. Unbeknownst to me, Lily had gotten her an Encanto cake so it was a good gift choice. 

Maggie was so delighted with the little figures of the characters that came with the book that she insisted they all be arranged on the table to watch her eat. 

By the time we were finished with supper, I had been completely overstimulated by the noise and activity and people. The inside part of the restaurant was still completely full and no one was wearing a mask, servers were running hither and yon with trays of food and drink, and every time I went in to use the restroom (we were there a long time) I came out feeling like I was in some sort of Fellini dreamscape of noise and color and underlying threat. So when we finished our meal I was grateful to hug everyone good-bye and come home to Lloyd where Maurice was waiting in the yard for us to come home.
But I am very glad we went. When Lily first asked me if we wanted to come, I said immediately, "I don't think so," but after talking to my husband and thinking about it, I realized that it was important for us to go for Maggie's sake if for no other reason although honestly- she was having so much fun that I doubt she would have noticed if we hadn't been there. And it was important for me, too. I have become way too home-bound and fearful of leaving my house, especially at night. So for many reasons, it's good we went. 
After supper, the kids and Lily and Lauren and Jason and his mother went to Jason's house where they had the beautiful cake. 

May all her wishes come true.

I think Magnolia June had a very, very fine birthday. 

And today has been an easy day, a loving day with just me and my husband. I worked in the garden a little and did some household stuff. He's about to go to a basketball game and will be leaving early tomorrow morning for Louisiana. 

I am feeling very peaceful and very grateful on many levels for so many things. 

And I'm kind of wishing I had a piece of purple birthday cake. I do love a Publix buttercream frosting. 

Let's chat again tomorrow, shall we?

Love...Ms. Moon

Dating During The Time Of Covid

 Maggie woke up to this gorgeous balloon banner today that her mama stayed up late to make. Lily is such a sweet mother. And then our Woman Child got to stay home from school and do fun things with that sweet mother. 

They went to the Cat Cafe for hot chocolate and cuddles. 

As the kids say these days, "I can't even." Look at that little lady. 

If they had gotten a kitten, this one would have been it. Maggie deemed it "comfortable."

Lily said that while she was holding this little cat her heart rate, according to her smart watch, went down to 52 bpm. Why don't doctor's offices have kittens and puppies you can cuddle while you're getting your blood pressure taken?

The ladies also had their toes done and Lily reported that Maggie was so sweet all day long. I know she was. 
And pretty soon we'll be leaving for supper with all of them to continue the celebration. 

Mr. Moon and I had a different sort of day. He's going to Louisiana on Sunday to hunt and he has a little cough and sinus thing going on so he wanted to get covid tested and it just so happens that there's free testing at the library in Monticello where I was going anyway to pick up my package. Plus- Mr. Moon could finally meet Terez! 

So off we went to the capitol city of Jefferson County, the ONLY city in Jefferson County, and we stopped at the post office first. When I started trying to explain the situation to a guy at a window, the woman next to him said, "Oh, yeah. That package is right over there." She pointed, the guy retrieved it for me, and off I went with my dresses. 
Next stop, the library where we had to do a check-in to fill in forms via our phones, then to another stop where we were okayed, then to the stop where they swabbed us. 
Results to be texted and e-mailed quickly. 

I had been texting Terez, whom some of you may remember from earlier posts about going to toddler time at the library there which is where we met Terez who is a librarian and a darling man. 
A darling very tall man. 
So I've been wanting the two tall men to meet and they did!

Two very tall beautiful men, even though it's hard to tell with the masks on. Trust me. It was so good to see Terez and catch up a little.

Then the man and I decided that we might as well make a date of it so we went to Wag the Dog where we got our tests results, again via our phones and we were both negative. Hurray! 
We went into a little antique shop across the street from Wag and I found lots of things I want but nothing I had to have so we went to lunch at the Rev where we ate outside. Our food was good but we had to wait forever. It was sort of ridiculous. 

But it was a beautiful day and we enjoyed the view of the courthouse and the traffic so it was all okay. 

When we got home, this is what I did. 

I am so very happy to have my beautiful big refrigerator back in use again. 

And now I need to go get ready for the Mexican restaurant meet-up. Eating out twice in one day! I can't believe it. 

I'll sign off here but perhaps I'll do a little lagniappe post when we get home if there are any adorable pictures or something. Oh! Of the two dresses, one (the purple corduroy) is doable. It has pockets. It must not be great because I'm wearing it and Mr. Moon didn't say a word. 
Sigh. 
I'm wearing make-up too and he didn't mention that either so...

Sigh again.

The other dress just does not please me. Also- no pockets. How did I manage to buy a dress with no pockets? So it's going back unless Jessie wants it. It would probably look beautiful on her. 

Happy Friday, y'all. 

Love...Ms. Moon

All Is Fairly Well

I swear I have more roses blooming right now than I had all spring and summer. It's crazy. And crazy beautiful. Although I have a desire to pick some and bring them into the house, they just seem so happy where they are that I can't bring myself to do it. 

Found my dresses. Theoretically. I went down to the post office this morning and talked to the post mistress who got on the phone to Monticello where, as you may recall, they got sent and supposedly returned to sender. The problem was simple and yet, somehow, complicated. 
April Cornell, whom I ordered the dresses from, had requested a physical address, not a post office box. Okay. We do have one of those and even a mailbox out front. We can get mail either way. BUT, our physical address is not Lloyd, Florida, it is Monticello, Florida with a different zip code than the PO box address. As I have said before, although there is a post office in Lloyd, there is only one real legal town in all of Jefferson County and it is Monticello. So when I gave April Cornell my address, I gave the physical address with the correct zip code, but I wrote "Lloyd" instead of "Monticello." 
You with me? 
When the package got to Monticello (and don't ask me how it got there to begin with- the zip code?) they had no record of the physical address with the wrong city listed. 
Now you'd THINK that they could have figured it out. Lloyd is about twelve miles from Monticello and everyone in Monticello knows where Lloyd is and let us not forget that my physical address is XXXX, Old Lloyd Road. 
But no, and besides that, no mail is shipped to the Lloyd post office from Monticello. It all comes from Tallahassee. 
The post mistress explained all of this to me and told the Monticello post office NOT to return the package and that I would come and pick it up after I told her that I would. So I'll be doing that tomorrow. 
I think that the odds of them not having sent it back anyway, are about 50-50. And of course, neither dress may fit and/or I may not like one or both. 
But it's an adventure! 

I made soup today. Garbanzo bean, greens, sausage, and sweet potato. 

I think it will be good. I had to cook it in the pressure cooker for awhile because garbanzo beans take eight days to cook in my experience. The sausage is venison sausage, the greens are from the garden, and the sweet potatoes are too. Remember our tiny volunteer sweet potato harvest? I'm finally using them. 

I worked in the garden a little bit this afternoon and fiddled with the soup all day. Also sourdough, of course, which was started early this morning. Well, not that early to be honest. I used the hot pad set on low wrapped in a towel method to coax it along. It looks to be lovely. 

AND! The refrigerator repair man showed up and despite several set-backs with his equipment, he has the new compressor on, the new software running, and hopefully by tomorrow I'll be able to use the official refrigerator again. Now- let's see how long it takes to get that other refrigerator out of the hallway. We're going to need two men and a boy (one of my favorite expressions) to do the job or, to be more accurate, one man and a boy (Owen). 

Tomorrow Magnolia June will be six years old! A dinner at a local Mexican restaurant is planned where we can sit outside. Not El Patron but the same restaurant where Maggie's gender reveal party was held which is sweet although gender reveals have more than one meaning in this family. Perhaps we should have called it a "genital reveal". 

And so it has gone, another day in my life. A problem researched and possibly figured out, some clothes washed, dried, and put away, roses admired, weeds pulled, a chat with a repairman, a soup and a bread made, eggs gathered, greens picked, things cut up with my brand new and already beloved knife. 
I have only cut myself two tiny times with it! 
Not a bad day. 

Love...Ms. Moon

The Universe Does Not Want Me To Have New Dresses. Or Shoes.

I woke up today a tiny bit excited because according to the tracking information I've been getting, I was supposed to be taking delivery of two dresses that I freaking ordered! 
Two!!! Dresses!!!

When was the last time I bought new clothes? Well, okay. I do remember. It was last summer before we went to NC. I bought one on sale new from maybe Sundance? The other pre-worn, as they say, from e-bay. And they were definitely summer dresses and the ones I just ordered have sleeves, one actually corduroy and so I've looking forward to getting them. 
And then I got this message when I went to the tracking site of UPS.

ARE YOU FUCKING SHITTING ME?
Sorry for the swears. 
No. I'm not. 

So la-di-dah. No dresses. Probably ever. I'll deal with that tomorrow, I suppose. I didn't do it today because I had to go to town. 
Not wearing a new dress, by the way. 

I had some things to return and I wanted to look for a pair of shoes and a shadow box to put May's precious sweater in and a few other things including...Costco and Publix, of course, and so I went to return the first item- a pair of earrings. Mr. Moon got them for me for Christmas and they weren't the ones I wanted and I am too old and so is he to fake delight about something I don't want. So I bought the ones I do like last week and was going to return the gifted ones today. 
That damn jewelry store. They insist that they have to have the entire credit card number, along with the verification number, expiration date and billing zip code before they'll give you your money back. 
I fumed. But I called my husband and he sent me the information and I got that taken care of. Then I basically crossed a highway to get to the shoe and shadow box stores and I bought nothing in either although it took me over an hour to do that. 
Buy nothing.
And then I was starving and so I went into a shi-shi grocery store where the lights are dim and romantic and, as Lis said once, you feel like you need a hankie because it's so pretty, and I got some sushi and at the check out I grabbed a bag of fancy potato chips for some unknown reason because I never buy potato chips. 
Well, almost never.

I went to the car to eat and the sushi sucked so I had a bag of chips for lunch. They were kettle-cooked so it was cool. 
Not nutritious but cool.
Then I went to the appliance and bed store. Mr. Moon is not entirely happy with our new bed and we have discussed this endlessly. He feels it is too soft so he asked me to go by and talk to them about this and check out the other firmness levels of the TemperPedics. 
That took awhile. 
Then to the cooking supply store where I returned a pie plate that I had also received for Christmas. I am an ungrateful wretch, aren't I? I made the mistake of looking around and walked out with a new knife. Don't worry, I paid for it. 
By this time all of the input and people (many, many of whom were of course maskless) and traffic had me on the verge of weeping but I pulled up my big girl panties, went to Costco and bought Maggie a birthday present and some vodka, and then went to Publix where I bought everything else. 

I'm tired. I feel like a whiney child, just tired, tired, tired. 
And I will sleep just fine on the new bed which we will probably be soon trading for another. On which I will also sleep just fine. 

Oh! Last night we got to the part of "Get Back" where Billy Preston entered the picture and at that point, things do pick up. Billy brings a much needed spark of joy and energy to the lads. I wrote about Billy HERE in regard to his stint with the Rolling Stones. It was interesting, watching him play in the documentary. He leans way over the keyboard, as unlike a classically-trained pianist could be. I pointed that out to my husband and he said, "He just loves it so much that he wants to be closer to the music and the keys."
Zen Glen. He was right. You could just see it in his body, that sheer love of the keys. 

I'm going to go make supper with my new knife. I hope I don't cut a finger off. It's a very good knife. And the egg rolls were pretty okay last night. Even having to cook in batches it took less time than doing them in the oven. 

And now you know everything. 
Good Lord willin' and the creek don't rise, the refrigerator repair man will be here tomorrow. Mr. Moon and I were discussing keeping the extra refrigerator in the hallway for ease and convenience but I doubt we will. As Jessie said when we told her that, next thing we'd have to put a washing machine and an old sofa on the porch. 
Some of y'all may not get that. It's a southern thing. 

But at this moment in time we don't actually plan on doing any of those things. It's good to have options, though. 

Love...Ms. Moon

 

Workin' Men

Jessie's brakes have been making alarming noises so she brought her car out today for the Daddy Mechanic to take a look at the situation. He had two helpers. The sound of the air wrench (is that what it is?) was a little much for the boys but they were undeterred in their enthusiasm. 

At one point, August was literally hanging off the end of the jack, trying to get the car off the ground and really, Boppy only had to help a little bit. 

Those boys just love doing Boppy things with Boppy. And I am pretty sure that he loves it too. 

The next project on the agenda was more work on the fence. Cement had to be mixed to set a post in. 

Mama got involved too. 

While all of this was going on the chickens, led by Liberace, walked past us on the sidewalk to go and scratch in the little patch of wildness between our yard and the church's yard next door. Also, Maurice, who seemed to be loathe to let us out of her sight today, sat and watched as I pulled some of the dang invasive paper plants already coming back up. 

As you can see, the also-invasive crocosmia are coming up too. I'm not even going to worry about them at the moment. 

Besides doing outside work with their grandfather, they also deigned to let me read them some books. And I had so much fun playing "Go Fish" with Owen and Gibson and Maggie the other day that I suggested we try a round of that. Levon isn't quite old enough but August was extremely enthusiastic and he beat me, of course. Levon "helped" me although once it was clear that his brother had won, he announced that no, he was actually on August's team. 
I tried to define the word "turncoat" for them with its derivation but they didn't care. 

So it was a very fine day hanging out with those boys and their mother. I actually learned a few things about lug nuts and cement-making that I did not know. I do not plan to ever use that knowledge, but if I had to, it'll come in handy. 

Tonight's air frying experiment will be egg rolls. I always make my own and bake them in the oven but tonight we'll see if they come out crispier in the air fryer. Last night's wings were a big hit and I'm pretty sure I'll be making them again at some point. 
Obviously, I have a new toy. 

No deep thoughts tonight. All of the kids are going back to school tomorrow and of course we're all worried here about Omicron. Seems like everyone has it now. Jessie's going to go back to work at the hospital starting next week and they have something like 150 employees out. I honestly think we're all going to get this variant and perhaps, this will be like back burning which is what it's called when fire fighters start another, controlled fire to reduce the fuel for a prescribed burn or a wildfire. 
Said Pollyanna.

We shall see. 

Love...Ms. Moon

Here Came The Sun

That pretty little anole was taking what little bit of sun was to be had on the porch yesterday. I do like his green legs and the blue eye shadow. Such fetching little creatures. I bet he was cold today though. We went from being gray and gloomy for days to a full-on storm with thunder and pelting rain last night with plenty of wind and drama and then right after that, the temperature dropped. We had the AC on when we went to bed and turned on the heat this morning as it was down around forty. It was still depressingly gray this morning but around noon I decided to take a walk and by the time I got home the sun had come out and it turned into a beautiful day. Mr. Moon worked outside on the fence all day long and I even got out for awhile and picked up fallen branches and twigs that had come down in the wind. 
I'm going to be sore tomorrow, I'm sure and truthfully, I'm in a bit of pain tonight. Although I know that walking is good for me in so many ways, it cranks up what I suppose is arthritis my hips and back. Some sort of inflammation, anyway. I'm sure it's not going to kill me. This has been going on for decades and I'm still walking. 

So- air fryer update! 
Last night I cooked four little bream (pronounced "brim" for some unknown reason) that my husband pulled in from a river on New Year's day. Those little fresh-water fish may be my favorite type of fish, their meat so white and tender. I've always pan fried them whole as they're too little to filet but last night I decided to try them in the air fryer and hoped for the best and actually, they may have been the best I've ever made. I just did the flour, then egg, then flour and cornmeal thing with salt and pepper, sprayed them with a little olive oil and put them in the air fryer basket and they came out so beautifully. No grease to fight with the fish, just sweetness. We ate them with lime juice and hot sauce- perfect. 
Today I used the air fryer to make some tuna melts and they came out nicely too. Tonight I'm going to make Mr. Moon some chicken wings because I think that's what he had in his mind when he bought me the little appliance. He does love Buffalo wings and he knows I'm never going to fry any for him and figured this might be a way to get me to make him some. I have a feeling he's going to love them. 
I don't really care much for them so I made a smallish pot of soup with leftover beans and greens and corn and celery and onions, a sort of southern minestrone because I'll add some macaroni to it and sprinkle the top with parmesan. And that will be supper along with some heated up cornbread, perfect for this chilly evening. 

We've been watching the Beatles documentary, "Get Back" a little bit at a time and it's just depressing the hell out of me. It is so damn obvious that they were all weary of being Beatles, the music, the act of creation no longer being much of a joy. Paul saying, "I'm tired of having to tell everyone what to do," and George leaving for lunch one day and just not coming back. It's impossible for anyone who did not live through the time when the Beatles were actually playing, on the charts, the radio, our record players, to know or understand what they meant to us. 
They were...well, magical. 
They made the music that we danced to, made love to, got stoned to, tripped to, came into a sort of universal awareness to. 
I suppose that the brightness of the flame which they were could not burn for long. Or perhaps that's just a very polite way of saying that they ran out of juice for it all. 
I've been pondering all of this and thinking about what Paul McCartney (what a pretty boy he was!) said recently about the Rolling Stones which is that they were a blues cover band. I can't imagine why he'd say that- he obviously knows that really, no, that's not what they were and it's not what they are. But perhaps deep in his soul, he knows that like the Stones, the Beatles had that magic, the four of them together, and that unlike the Stones, the Beatles' time together was just so short. 
I don't know. We'll watch the whole thing but just as what those dear boys were doing in the studio did not bring them joy, it's not bringing much to me, either. Sometimes, when they play a song that I remember with such deep, deep love, I sing along very quietly but none of it makes me want to dance. 
Speaking of which, I do love the parts where John and Yoko dance in the documentary. 
I wish they were still able to do that- dance together. 
Well. 

Love...Ms. Moon

No Title

 Banana Down!

The weather continues to be fucking weird. Still warm today. The fallen banana plant you see above got nipped with a freeze about a month ago but as you can see, the stalk is still green so it wasn't frozen entirely. AND- look at what was growing (unbeknownst to me) at the top. 

Now that is just crazy. And how I did not notice the bloom and the forming bunch, I do not know. Also, I have never seen a banana topple over, leaving roots exposed. That may not be a rare occurrence but I've never seen it. 

I cut the stem up and hauled it away in pieces, heavy as it was with it's still very juicy stem. I couldn't bring myself to toss the baby bananas so right now they're just laying on my kitchen porch. 

I cleaned the hen house again today. I say "again" as if that's not something I do regularly. Thirteen chickens can make a lot of poop. And they do. I also did a little weeding in the garden, sweating as I went. Right now we are getting sudden lashings of wind and I keep getting warned that there are tornado warnings somewhere near. In between the bouts of dancing leaves the air is still enough to also feel strange as if an orchestra had been playing furiously and then suddenly stopped.  They keep saying we're going to get rain tonight and then the temperature will drop but "they" are so often wrong. 

All day as I've gone about my business I've been thinking about a woman I knew so very long ago. I have only seen her once in many, many years, and then only briefly. But I thought of her a few days ago, and wondered how she was doing. I had seen her son the last time Lon and Lis played in Tallahassee which was probably almost two years ago. He's the same age as Hank and they were born in a short spate of time in which it seemed as if every hippie woman in Tallahassee was having a baby. This woman, whom I knew when she was Marcia Conn, was a singer and she sang in a band with her then-husband, his brother and HIS then-wife, and a few other people. It was truly one of the best bands to ever come out of Tallahassee, if not the best, and Marcia's voice was simply rare and amazing. She was a tiny little thing and the sound that came from that set of lungs blew everyone away. 
I guess you can imagine what's coming here. 
Yes. She died a few days ago and I found out about it from a friend's post on FaceBook. That woman, too, had a baby about a month after Hank was born- another one of the Tallahassee Hippie Mama's of 1976. Marcia's then husband has made a video and I'm going to post it here if anyone cares to watch it, listen to it. There are pictures that take me back to those days and Marcia's voice is just as I remembered it. 

The brother of the man who made the video, her former husband, still plays with Lon and Lis in one of their musical combinations and the bass player for the band they played in sits in with them sometimes now and is someone my history is also entangled with and is a friend. 

My darling Sue-Sue and I always talked about writing a history of the early music scene in Tallahassee but we never did and then she died. I think it would still be a worthwhile project. There have been some very, very fine musicians who have called this area home. 
Marcia was one of them. 

All right. Let's just segue right on to camellias because, well- I want to. I picked some today. They are blooming so profusely and I do not think it hurts anything for me to bring a few in to enjoy. 

Now that I think about it, these last camellias, the unnamed beauties, remind me a bit of Marsha. Their seeming fragility, so delicate that the light shines through them, all the while being so incredibly powerful in their beauty. 

As my friend who posted the video on FB said, "None of us are getting out of here alive." Some of us, though, are going to be leaving a bit more light than others. I doubt Marcia knew she was one of those but she damn sure was. I should have told her that. 

Love...Ms. Moon

Doing What I Can To Ensure All The Good Stuff With The Proper Dietary Rituals

Vergil's family all left, some yesterday, some early this morning. The house must seem so quiet now. I had asked Jessie if they wanted to come out for some black-eyed peas and greens today for their annual January 1st dose of luck and peace and riches or...something. 
This is just what we do in the south- eat black-eyed peas and greens on New Year's day and although I do not know the true history of the custom, it seems a ritual that is extremely doable and sensible, too, in its own way. 

This year I cooked some dried black-eyed peas from the store and when they were getting soft, I added a bag of the field peas we froze last summer from the garden. I figured that would be extra lucky. And I cooked them with what was left of the Christmas ham which was bone mostly, but some meat. I think that hog jowl is more traditional to cook the peas with but I already had the ham and waste not, want not. I also added some leftover rice to the peas because it ain't Hoppin' John without the rice. And don't ask me why we call it Hoppin' John, either. Hank probably knows. 
I had frozen some of the leftover greens I cooked for Christmas and I thawed those out and added them to a few more I picked this morning. I will make cornbread to go with it all in a little while. 
Anyway, what was I talking about? 
Oh yes. The Weatherford family. 
They did come out for a little while. Long enough to check out the virtual reality situation. It was fun to watch Vergil dance with the robot but it was a joyous moment, watching Jessie dance with it. That girl can dance! I haven't even SEEN the robot yet- still, the only thing I've seen (watched?) are the sharks and I am still thinking of that. How it was sort of wonderful. 

August was not feeling so well but good enough to be sassy. Levon asked for some juice and I gave them both some. They know we always have grape juice and cranberry something-something juice. Maybe pineapple or mango. They love for me to mix the two and I add water, telling them that I am "freshening" their drinks. They accept this explanation as to why I dilute the juice. 

Each of the boys got a cinnamon graham as a going-away treat. 
They're so funny. I told Levon that I had missed him and he said, "What do you mean?" His vocabulary and the way he speaks reminds me far more of a nine-year old than a four-year old. He and his brother are both quite literal in their interpretations of what is said. This delights me as it makes me think of what we're really saying when we speak sometimes. It makes it a bit hard for them to get the jokes in an old Bennett Cerf kid joke book I have because the jokes are based on how a little kid does the same thing- interprets things literally instead of in their common usage and just as the little boy named Marvin in the book doesn't understand why the things he says are funny, neither do they although I try to explain why the jokes are jokes and they nod their heads sagely and say, "I get it."
But they don't really laugh. 
I wonder if they've been read any Amelia Bedelia. She is the queen, of course, of literal speak. I should ask about that. 

So it was absolutely delicious to see them (although I didn't actually taste them) and their mama and daddy. I sent them home with enough peas and greens to ensure good luck in the coming year. 

It's been a very laid-back New Year's Day. I did take down my Christmas decorations. 
Meaning I took the little strings of lights off the tiny tree and carried it back to the porch. I told Mr. Moon, "I've put the Christmas decorations away."
"Thanks!" he said. And we both chuckled. 

It's still quite warm, though not as muggy but I have the air conditioning on. It's supposed to rain tomorrow and start getting cooler. I'll be so glad to turn the AC off again. It is confusing to my subconscious which relies on cues like air-feel and temperature and humidity or lack thereof, along with the sights and sounds that come with winter. I look at the blooming camellias and then the AC kicks on and I am unsure what universe it is that I am in, or season either, for that matter. 

Eh, we're just a minuscule speck of dirt and water, spinning in a minuscule speck of the universe and that does put things in perspective, I suppose. Meanwhile, I should go ahead and plant my sugar snap peas and my potatoes. Let 'em get going now instead of waiting for February. Might as well try to adapt to what is instead of insisting on basing everything on what used to be. 

Well, that's enough philosophizing for one night. 

Love...Ms. Moon