A lazy Saturday...

 It still hasn't rained.  It's dry as a bone out there...and I'm lazy as a slug. Not nearly as hot as it has been, thankfully, but the humidity is high, so that makes it a sweaty ordeal to pick green beans.  But pick them I did this morning, another full peck. I'll be snapping tonight as we watch the next Netflix movie, one called Being Flynn.

 I had hoped that the sweaty steaming this morning would burn out this cold, but it doesn't seem to have worked. I am not really sick, just coughing and snotty.  I hate that.  And I am not understanding why I keep getting these dang things.  I eat healthy, I don't smoke or drink...I don't know if it's maybe the stress of inflammation that has undermined my immune system ? I never used to get sick. I have had this cold since Tuesday or something.

 Cooked a whole chicken in the rotisserie and that will be supper, with some green beans cooked with garlic and onions and some leftover quinoa mixed with a little wild rice that I cooked for last night's supper.  The beans have been especially good this year. I'll be canning again tomorrow...have probably 2 canners full if I do all quarts, more if I decide to can some pints.  Pints are really perfect for us for a meal, but I like having some quarts too. And because it was so hot,  I didn't get out there to pick beans yesterday (or the day before), so some of the beans were pretty big. Bigger than I like, anyway. Those I put aside and fill jars that I mark "Beans for Soup".  They're a little tougher, but not woody...I cut them into smaller pieces and they're perfect to use in vegetable soup. Or stews.

  ~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~

  A few hours later...

   Stopped to go out and water the gardens, as the rain is still non-existent. It got really dark after I started watering, but nothing happened. Sigh... oh well. Then came back in and finished the supper that the chicken is to go with. It was awesome. Except for the big mess the rotisserie made. From somewhere (and I have looked and looked) it spilled nasty chicken fat/juices all over the counter. I had to move the oven and clean that whole counter down. YUCK.  But the chicken was cooked perfectly, and really really moist and tender. It was an all natural chicken that I bought. We ate like kings.


  Did not get the beans snapped or the movie watched. Guess I'll get it done tomorrow. We wound up sitting around on the couch reading the rest of the evening. It's almost 11 now, and himself has gone to bed.

  I am re-reading a Barbara Kingsolver book of essays called Small Wonder. I love everything she writes, but I especially loved this book.  It is a real glimpse of her life: her family, her homes, her passions. Highly recommend.  The very first thing of hers I read was a book called Pigs in Heaven...a lovely piece of fiction that a friend was reading and called me up to ask if I had read it. I had never heard of Barbara Kingsolver then...must have been over 20 years ago.  After falling in love with Pigs, I have read almost everything she has written ever since. And her works are diverse and magnificent.  This particular one I'm reading now was written in 2002. It's an environmental  love song. Listen to this :   

"Oh, how can I say this ? People need wild places. Whether or not we think we do, we  do .  We need to be able to taste grace and know once again that we desire it. We need to experience a landscape that is timeless, whose agenda moves at the pace of speciation and glaciers. To be surrounded by a singing, mating, howling commotion of other species, all of which love their lives as much as we do ours, and none of which could possibly care less about our economic status or our running day calendar."

  Ah yes.  I am in love with this woman's writings and the deliberate life she leads.

*************************

  Alright. I guess it's time for me to go to bed soon as I'm trying to get on a schedule with that stuff.  Only because it makes eating 5 times a day easier.  LOL


  Sweet dreams and bountiful harvests to you all.



Namaste.