June 14, 2023
It’s supposed to be summer,
officially, in one week from today. But I have a feeling that the only place it
will be summer is on the calendar.
Now, I don’t mind overly much
if the temperatures are moderate—I recall my mother once saying that she would
be happy if it was 75 degrees all year round (24 decrees Celsius). I never
understood that at the time. I didn’t care if it was hot. I didn’t care if it
was cold. I used to make my mom shake her head because it was just as likely
that I would wear shorts in the winter as big comfy sweaters in the summer.
But we get older, and we
change, and yeah, I can see the attraction of 75 degrees year-round as opposed
to 40 or 90. What I can’t seem to find is any attraction in 55 and damp with a chilly
breeze thrown in for good measure. I tell you, my friends, I really am trying
to cut down on the number of pain medications I take each day. Mother Nature
did not, apparently, get the memo.
Our table gardens appear to be
doing well. Most of the newly planted beans have taken. David came up with a
brilliant idea of cutting a few of our water jugs in half, and inverting them
over the bean seeds, pressing the plastic down so the critters couldn’t dig
down and eat the seeds. Those plants are now too much plant for the critters to
bother with. In fact, they’re ready to be transplanted. I am looking forward to
a bumper crop of beans this year. And yes, they’re all green beans.
We’re still eating of the veggies
that I put down last fall, and that is a very good thing. Yes, there’s the
value of preservation. But the beans and the corn and squash actually taste way
better than anything you can get at the grocery store off season.
These days, I serve mostly
fresh, or home-frozen veggies. If I have one regret in life, it’s that I didn’t
have enough money to feed my kids an abundance fresh fruits and veggies off
season. We usually had a garden, but not always the capacity to freeze a lot
from it.
After some very unseasonably
hot days this year so far, we’re now having some unseasonably cool ones. I’ve
heard that in some places in the southern U.S. Mother Nature has wreaked havoc
with the fruit tree crops. Early super-warm days encouraged blossoms, which
were then murdered by the unexpected cold snaps.
This is just one example of
why this “maxim” came into being: if you’re looking for a career with
guaranteed success, farming is not for you.
My daughter and I shared some
quality mother-daughter time over the last week. She had booked some time off,
and her plan was mostly to just rest. She wanted to catch up on her reading,
and on some programs that we’ve recorded on our PVR. But last Friday, we had an
outing. We girded our loins and headed off to a big warehouse-grocery type
store, one that we visit a few times a year, and for which we have a membership.
Now, while I’m not the expert
in parsimony that my beloved is, I still am fairly frugal. This store sells in
bulk, and there are some things, if you know your prices, that are really good
deals. That said, my daughter and I have noticed that we can’t seem to leave
that store for less than five hundred dollars.
This time, apparently, our
stars were all in alignment, and the cosmos had pity upon us. We entered that
store with our own list, and two other lists—one for a friend and one for our
second daughter. We also had a “coupon” for dollars off based on last year’s
purchases.
We were careful. We were disciplined.
We did find a couple of items we hadn’t intended on buying. I don’t recall what
hers were, but mine was a 1000 count box of sucralose sweetener, the very one I
use. At the regular grocery store a box of 100 is about 9 dollars. This day, that
box of 1000 was 19.99 (7 dollars off the regular price). 1000 at the grocery
store would have been 90 dollars. I
simply couldn’t pass up the deal.
And after we collected from
friend and second daughter, and then deducted the dollars off coupon, in the
end we split the bill of 260.00. In case you’re wondering, I did indeed circle
the day on the calendar.
And then one evening, daughter
taught me how to play cribbage—and spending that time together with her was the
best thing of the entire last week.
I’m truly blessed.
Love,
Morgan
http://www.bookstrand.com/morgan-ashbury
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