A Day of Rest and Repose...

  In the beginning...  lol


    This picture is me at about 10 months to a year.  My memory of it is a little blurry. I was certainly a fat little round baby, and now I am a fat little round old woman.  In between, I was skinny skinny from about 5 til 19.  Pretty okay from 19 to about 35. And it was all downhill from there. lol And now, the cycle has completed itself.  I am losing my hair, some of my teeth and most of my bladder control.  Soon I'll be right back where I started. Bahahahahahahahaha


  Yesterday I was in town from 1 PM until after 4. I had a physical therapy appointment, a chiropractic appointment, a grocery appointment and a farm store appointment.  Well, you know.  About the time I was coming out of the store, the rains started and the young man who was loading my bags of feed into the car was whining about getting wet.  I good-naturedly told him to... "suck it up, you won't melt."  As I pulled out of the parking lot to head home the skies got black and ookey and the winds started blowing a gazillion miles per hour and the rain turned into a monsoon.  Lightning, thunder that wouldn't quit, and hail. Holy Guacamole...I prayed the travelers prayer the whole way home and somehow got back here in one piece.  I suspect that I drove through the peripheries of a tornado, as a couple had been spotted in the area.  I had to stop once, when I couldn't see the hood of my car. My RED car. Mostly I just sallied forth, at a steady 40 mph until I could see the driveway to Honeysuckle Hill, where I pulled in and sat in the car for another 10 minutes, waiting for it to at least slow down so I could run in the house. I was soaked when I got in. There was a message from the Irishman calling to tell me about the tornado warnings and sightings and where was I and that he hoped I was okay.  I called him back and said yes, that I couldn't answer the phone when he called because I was driving.  That shut him up. He said--you were out in this ??   I assured him that I had been ambushed by it.  lol


  I have some pinto beans cooking.  I don't know what supper will be tonight, but it's going to include pintos.  Last night we had sandwiches, cabbage salad and battered and fried morel mushrooms.

These bad boys grow around here and are starting to show themselves. My son came 'round with a small mess of them and I fixed them up and we ate them with gusto.  He also found another wild mushroom to add to the list (of chantrelles, hen of the woods and morels) called Dryad's Saddle or the Pheasant back mushroom. He cooked some for himself last night and pronounced them wonderful. He said he may give up hunting morels forever since these others are so much easier to find and harvest is several pounds at a time.  But nothing tastes quite like a good morel to me. Probably because it is more rare and available for such a short time.  Remember this from last year ?

  A SEVEN pound cluster of Hen of the woods mushroom. We ate, dried and froze a lot of  that mushroom last year. I have used the dried pieces in soups and stews and casseroles all winter long. It might LOOK like a giant brain, lol...but it has a rich mild flavor that is wonderful.  I'll never buy store bought button mushrooms again.

  I am thinking of going out and trying to finish pruning the wisteria. I got quite a lot of done Sunday, but my wrist started hurting and I couldn't reach some parts, so I stopped.  I also have a Rose of Sharon out there that has got to be cut ASAP..before it starts budding.

  After yesterdays adventures, I am quite content to take today "off" and not really do much.  The weather forecast for today was possibility of more severe thunderstorms, but so far it just keeps clouding up and the sun breaks through again. I could be germinating seeds, but I'm not. I could be cleaning house, but I'm not. I am cooking  a little and writing a little and I had popcorn for lunch. I have tended critters large and small.  But mostly, I have done as little as possible. Tomorrow I will tackle a couple of big jobs and a few smaller ones. Maybe run an errand. Maybe not. I am embracing these days when I have nowhere to go, and can just stay at home, cutting lilacs to bring to the dining room table.

  Time to check the beans, let a dog out, check my chickens for eggs.  All simple mindful things that make these days of rest and repose precious. The time isn't so far away when every day will be filled with the hard and satisfying work of preserving the bounty of my gardens, and as much as I love the work, it will be exhausting. In a good way.  For now though...I am going slow and savoring every moment.



Namaste.