We've had rain from dawn to dusk today and it is still drizzling. I went out in it to pick some collards and salad greens and that rose was bent over the garden gate. All of the blossoms had their heads bowed, heavy with the rain. We've gotten some huge and close cracks of lightning and thunder too, during the day, a few of them shaking the house with their great and powerful energy.
I picked the greens and lettuces for Mr. Moon to take to a friend whose wife just died a few days ago. He's a hunting buddy and I'd call them close friends. They've driven up to Canada and back together a few times and Glen enjoys the man's company. His wife has been ill for quite awhile but still- it's always a shock when death happens somehow. There is no real preparation for the actuality of it.
So Glen asked his friend if there had been a lot of food coming in and he said, "Not too many casseroles. Mainly I'd like some salad or green beans."
This is not the food that one generally thinks of to take to grieving friends but if that's what they want, that's what they want. My green beans are almost gone now, the few I have left that I canned, but the collards and mustards are in a state of plenty so I figured that since he was a southern boy, he'd appreciate a pot of those. So I cooked them up with onions and a ham hock and I washed the salad greens and dried them and they're in a bag waiting to go to. I also made a little pan of cornbread and it's all ready to go now but Jim, the friend, is not answering his phone so...perhaps he'll want them tomorrow.
Jessie and her boys came over in the early afternoon. They had been decorating their Charlie Brown Christmas tree and half the lights suddenly stopped working so Jessie took the boys to Waffle House, which she had promised them she would. They've never been to the Waffle House which is sort of a sin in that it is the Waffle House which feeds and sustains us here in the south with its always hospitable welcome, its hashbrowns, eggs, and bacon, its never-ending coffee and yes, sometimes its waffles. Day or night they welcome you, and it does not matter if you are sober and dressed for church or drunk and living rough, if you can sit on a stool or a bench and have the money, they will take care of you.
Sigh. She loves the Christmas tree.
So I asked Jessie if she would like some of my decorations and perhaps, lights, to take home and use because Lord knows I ain't gonna be using them. We tromped upstairs to see what was there and we found a huge box of lights that Mr. Moon had once used to put up outside when we were younger and had just recently moved in to this old house, and cared about things like that more. Jessie was thrilled! She went through the plunder in the closet upstairs and found some other things she said she'd take home. It feels good to let these thing go where they will be loved again.
We also found Jessie's old Cookie Monster blanket from when she was a little thing. I do not remember who gave it to her, but I sure do remember that blanket. And then, I found something that thrilled my heart.
Who can explain these things?
So when I found these upstairs in the closet, my heart was happy and I swear to you, I am going to get to work on doing another one to see if I still get the same pleasure from painting with that tiny brush, tweezering on the beads one by one, placing them just so in the glue.
And oh- I love them.
"Meow?" she asked me.
"I know," I said. "I didn't want him to go either. But he'll be fine."