The Sixth Sunday After Pentecost

Yesterday, we arose early and drove up to Abingdon. The town's library was hosting a used book sale, so we stopped at Pal's enroute and got a couple of bacon biscuits and sweet tea and headed north. Finding the library was a bit of a challenge, since some of the streets were being closed for the annual Highlands Festival, but we made it. And then we made out like bandits. Less than an hour in the place, and we walked out with a big box of books, for which we paid less than we'd have paid for two books at the local latte'-bar-disguised-as-a-bookstore. I'd tell you what we obtained, but time is short. See MeeMaw for details.


After we left the library, we went in search of the local farmer's market. We ended up at one of the local Highlands Festival fairs. Younguns, take heed: walking around a town and declaring, "Let's jist take a look in them tents over yonder!" is usually not sound policy. One might find one's self attending upon a blacksmith.



We did manage to locate the farmer's market, but not before I had to tear MeeMaw away from the bungee jumping apparatus.



The farmer's market was one of the best we've ever found. It was held under a very large pavilion, so there was not only shade, but a wind-tunnel-effect breeze. We browsed and chatted with the merchants, and found some nice things.
We ended up buying two bottles of wine, one from each of the local vineyard. One was a blackberry table wine, and the other a local Riesling. MeeMaw bought a peach teacake and some fingerling potatoes. I purchased a beautiful eggplant from an elderly colored woman. The eggplant has been sliced and is now resting in some brine in MeeMaw's crock (do any of you know how to prepare eggplant? Hint: brine is absolutely essential).


We came home and set about coaxing one of the hens back into the pen after she literally flew the coop. I don't recommend traipsing about in the briars while wearing shorts. This is one more reason I feel that I have erred in deciding to wear the blasted things when we lived in Texas. Long trousers well become a man; short pants are for schoolboys. And I'll say no more.


After the "let's capture the convict" adventure, we examined our garden. The corn has many ears, and we're trying to be vigilant about guarding it from the 'coons. MeeMaw picked an immature ear just to see how it tasted. It was very sweet and very crunchy.



The black-eyed peas are exploding,too. We've been mystified at how black-eyed peas - a staple in Texas and Arkansas - are virtually unknown in SW Virginia and east Tennessee. It can't be the soil...ours are growing with a ferocious intensity. We may harvest some tonight. We won't cook 'em, though. MeeMaw is crock-potting some green beans that Helen and Ernie brought us.

Here's some of PeePaw's potato plants. MeeMaw will explain.
Trust me. MeeMaw will explain.


And here's the de rigueur shot of Bonnie Dawg. MeeMaw's uncle Ellis used to tell her, "You're as pretty as a spotted dog under a red wagon," which was a high compliment in Texas parlance. For Possum Cough denizens, "You're as pretty as a red dog in the green grass in the mornin' time" is equally high praise.
Oh, and here's the wine we bought at the farmer's market...


And here are the homemade lamb dog biscuits we got for Bonnie...


We had a pleasant time at the church meeting this morning. One of the other elders' daughters was visiting with her husband, and they came to PeePaw's Sunday School class. We had a full house, which was rare for this vacationing time of year.


Then the two old folks came home and had a light lunch and then drowsed in the dark, cool cave of the family room while a thunderstorm rumbled outside. Dog and cats napped, too. And now we're up and about in this heat, which seems hellish by Appalachian mountain standards, but which is child's play compared to what Joshi-O and Moo-Moo are enduring in Austin.


My buddy Herrick recently posted this 19th-century list that I found interesting:

1852
How To Shorten Life

Lead a life of enfeebled, stupid laziness, and keep the mind in a round of unnatural excitement by reading trashy novels.
***
Begin in childhood on tea, and go on, from one step to another, through coffee, chewing tobacco, and drinking.
***
Marry in haste, get an uncongenial companion, and live the rest of life in mental dissatisfaction.
***
Eat without time to masticate food.
***
Follow an unhealthy occupation because money can be made by it.
***
Contrive to keep a continual worry about something or nothing.
***
Retire at midnight, and rise at noon.
***
Gormandize between meals.
***
Give way to fits of anger.

He followed it up with this tidbit:

-1871-
How to Live Long

A venerable minister, who had preached some sixty-five years in the same place, being asked what was the secret of long life, replied, “Rise early, live temperately, work hard, and keep cheerful.”

Another person, who lived to the great age of 110 years, said, in reply to the inquiry, “How he lived so long?”: “I have always been kind and obliging; have never quarreled with any one; have eaten and drunk only to satisfy hunger and thirst, and have never been idle.”

Our love and blessings to all of you, our loved ones.


~ PeePaw

8:43 p.m.

These are little solar lights that Peepaw attached to a part of our fence in the backyard....aren't they pretty? I want to take a drive down the road at night (below our house) and look at them from a distance.

I'm eating a Pepperidge Farm apple turnover with a dab of butter and a sprinkle of powdered sugar...doesn't that sound good? (it is.) Peeps is outside now putting the chickens to bed. There is always one girl, the big red one named Mable, who is naughty and won't go to bed with the others and Peepaw has to catch her and put her in the coop. But she lays pretty eggs so we give her some slack. We have one red one that tries and tries but can only lay a teeny tiny egg once in a blue moon. I wish hers were edible but the yolk is as tiny as the head of a pin so it wouldn't be much bigger than a dime if I were to fry it up. As it is, I just ooh and aah at the little thing for a few days then throw it away. (see above chicken related photo of Joshua and the coop)

Jason and Joshua, I was remembering y'all dressing up as super heroes when you were little boys, complete with your underwear on your head and a towel tied around your shoulders. You were so precious - and still are to your momma.

Summer is in full swing here and pretty much has been since May. We've had lots of record breaking days with temperatures over 90. It was so hot last weekend that we sat in the little wading pool that the children played in last month and it was so warm that it felt like bath water. As much as I love the summer veggies and fruit and long days, there is a part of me that's very much looking forward to this: (see above winter related photo of Peeps in the snow...a very cold Peeps.)

I have a three day weekend starting tomorrow and am very grateful for the time off. I will pamper myself a little bit, I'll do some cooking, and I'll gather my quickly-ripening tomatoes. Our corn has tasseled and we watch the little ears getting bigger and bigger by the day. I can't wait to try to first bite! We planted some heirloom corn seeds that we've been keeping in the fridge for several years and then we planted some local corn that was recently bought...wouldn't you know that the heirloom is growing the fastest and is the healthiest? We have a huge head of cabbage that I'll pick in the next day or two but the one thing I'm truly most looking forward to is black eyed peas! No one here grows them or purple hulls, for some reason. Maybe they don't think the soil is good but ours are very healthy looking plants with tons of blooms so we're waiting to see the first little pea sprout. A meal with all vegetables of the summer is one of the best things in the world, don't y'all agree?

I love you all very much and pray for you always,

Mom

p.s. sorry the pictures are all at the top....I had technical difficulties.

Before Independence Day

Over a year since we last posted...I won't attempt any great narrative in this post (it just annoys Josh when I do that, anyway), and I won't attempt to cram a year's worth of photos in here, either. Just a few to highlight some things we've done recently. And a couple of not-so-recent.


We went out to visit Mother last week and also to attend the wedding of my best friend Doug's eldest daughter, Victoria. The wedding was in a tiny, beautiful hamlet in far western Tennessee called Troy. The event was a happy one, very modest and simple. The ceremony itself was the briefest one I've ever attended, and also one of the most moving. We had a grand time. It was a very poignant time for Doug, as he has recently gone completely deaf. He had to lip read during the ceremony in order to know when to answer the question, "Who gives this woman...?" He did a pretty fair job of lip reading all day long, though he confided to me that it's exhausting to follow every nuance of what someone's mouth is doing. On the upside, he can look away from a bore and find sweet relief from mindless nattering. We're praying that he'll be cleared for cochlear implants very soon.


God's promise in the sky always looks particularly striking at Possum Cough. This was back in the spring...


As y'all know, Butternut is going blind. She can see very, very little these days, and it's sad to watch her bump into things and get lost. One evening, she was under the barstools in the kitchen and couldn't find her way out, so she started calling out in a panic. I went and rescued her; this was the first of many times we've had to help her out. One of the peculiar latent effects of her diminishing eyesight has been her dramatic mellowing. We all remember how mercurial and vicious she could be in her younger years ("Just like PeePaw in his later years," piped Jason), and it's been extraordinary to see her let people hold and pet her, and to watch her become very attached to Bonnie. Whenever Bonnie lies down, Butternut will soon be at her side. The other morning, Butters washed Bonnie's ears and face for a long five minutes while we stood dumbstruck. The photo here was taken a couple of months ago. And it wasn't Bonnie who threw her leg over Butters...the old cat wormed her way under Bonnie's leg in order to be closer to her. Amazing.Back in the icy weather of Valentine's Day, we went up to Wise, VA to a charming little restaurant called Tavern on the Main. We enjoyed a splendid gourmet meal there, and then attended a very intimate concert in the Tavern's concert hall. "Concert Hall" is very misleading; it's actually a smallish club with a stage. On the bill was Mandy Barnett, one of our favorite singers. We first saw her live onstage at the Grand Ole Opry and were stunned at the power and range of her voice. Mandy hails from the little town of Crossville, TN, and she got her start in music performing as Patsy Cline in the musical "Always...Patsy Cline." We shared a table with three other couples, and enjoyed talking with them. One gent was a circuit judge in Scott County, one was a retired college professor, and one was a car dealership owner. And several of them knew some of our neighbors...small world. The concert itself was very nice, and we were sitting about ten feet from Mandy. For much of the performance, she appeared to be singing directly to MeeMaw. After the show, she walked by us and smiled, and I touched her arm and told her that she is an incredible talent. She thanked us for coming to see her. And now I'm typing with a hand that hasn't been washed since February.




We finally made The Big Purchase and got a lawn tractor so that I wouldn't have to cut the grass with a push mower on these 90-degree days. It's an absolute hoot. Takes me about an hour to cut both the front and back yards AND the front pasture. MeeMaw digs it, too.




Back in the early spring, Bonnie found herself a rabbit, thereby disqualifying herself from the "You ain't nothin' but a hound dog" category. She was very proud of herself, and presented MeeMaw with a trophy.



It was good to see Jason and Karen and the babies two weeks ago...our fancy above-ground pool was a big hit.



We had something of a mystery occur Friday night. Something broke out the passenger side window in MeeMaw's car. It had been very hot that day, and the glass was likely very brittle; we wonder if a bird didn't fly into it and shatter it. At any rate, I've patched it with plexiglass until this Friday. The local glass repair shops are booked up from the recent hail storms and no one could get to us until then. We're praying that it doesn't rain before then...





Here MeeMaw harvests her absolute first blueberry...



Some of the harvest from last night...




MeeMaw's morning glory is taking over the front fence...



Hard-workin' grillin' mama...




The tomatoes look good; they'll start ripening in a day or two. One variety, given to us by the Morgans, is called a Russian Queen. Doug says it's extraordinary.




MeeMaw harvesting some of her green beans...And then looking and snapping those same beans. How many of you have heard old-timers use the phrase, "I need to look my beans"? It means to examine them for pot-worthiness.



Resting in the quiet heat of the early evening...



The hens are doing very well. Such hard-working little girls...




Grilling some zucchini fresh out of the garden. And no, the chicken isn't fresh out of the coop. It's just a store-bought ploy to keep the hens nervous and appreciative of how good they've got it...




We've put bird netting over some of the wild blackberries this year, and they've started to ripen. Last night, we had some with ice cream and peach crisp. They are stellar- sweet and with very little seediness.
MeeMaw's knockout roses. You can't live in this region and not have at least one knockout rose. She also has a new climbing rose that's doing very well (at least it's doing very well after I fenced it off to keep the neighbor's dog from peeing on it).



The Queen of Possum Cough surveys her domain. Fear her.



We love and miss you all very much. Y'all come see us!

~ PeePaw