Nature’s Bounty

Went by the community garden on my walk this morning and found the mayor picking tomatoes and purple hull peas. She gave me a batch of peas and I hulled them when I got home. It’s been a while since I did this, so the peas popped out of the pods, jumped the side of the bowl and landed on the floor.  It took a while to perfect my technique and now I know why they are named purple hull peas because my fingers are now purple. I plan on cooking them tonight with some chicken stock, half a slice of bacon, salt & pepper. They will go good over rice. 

At the same time, the tomatoes came in and I’m overwhelmed. Yesterday, I spent the afternoon cooking spaghetti sauce. Well, actually I should call it chicken zucchini spaghetti sauce. I used up half the tomatoes and was able to get 6 dinners out of it, which I then put in the freezer. Tomorrow, I plan on doing the same with the tomatoes below. 

Nutraderm Therapeutic Lotion, Original Formula

I have used the above lotion for almost forty years. Over that period of time, it has always been available at any large drug store. It used to cost about $8.00. Over the years, the price has gone up some, but I never paid over $15.00 for it. When I moved from California to Mississippi, I had to rely on the Internet for my supply. Now that my birthday is approaching, when asked what I would like, I said Nutraderm. The next thing I knew, I got a call late at night from a friend who said he’d like to buy it for me, but he wasn’t going to pay $100.00 for it. I was aghast. So this morning, I looked up Nutraderm on Amazon, and sure enough, there is was. $100.00. I am guessing that the company either went out of business, or stopped making the product. What amazes me even more, is you can buy it new or used. Now why would anyone buy a half-used container of moisturizer? The thought makes me gak. This is a fine example of why change isn’t always for the better. Tarnation! Now I'll have to go find another lotion. 

Mountain Laurel

My brother sent me this photo from North Carolina. His back yard is full of Mountain Laurel which is blooming right now. We have our Azaleas here in the deep south, but the Mountain Laurel certainly holds it own. Make sure to click on the photo to enlarge it.

                                                                Hooray! Yippee!

This season's Sun Drops didn't disappoint. In fact, they were glorious.  People would slow down as they passed the front of the house to look at them. I never planned to have them in front by the road, but they chose where they wanted to grow and I just put a fence around them. 

The Emerald Looking Glass

It's hard to take a photo of a mirror and not get a glare, so I took one from the side. The stitching around the mirror is a wheat stitch, diamond stitch, and double stitch. The pine needles are from Pass Christian. The shiny stuff is junk jewelry.  And, oh yes, the reflection is my front porch.

The Community Garden Project, Raymond, MS

Once again, the women of Raymond have come together to plant a garden. We planted tomato plants and much to our dismay, they came down with Mosaic Disease. We had to pull almost all of them in the square garden, but the longer part of the garden doesn’t seem to be affected. Since the pestilence is insect borne, it doesn’t affect the soil, so we were able to replant. It actually will work out fine because we’ll have tomatoes that come in steadily, and won’t be overwhelmed all at once.  This morning, Elaine, Althea, Isla, and I did some weeding. Please note the dark rich soil and manicured plants. We're proud of our roots.

                      This last photo shows the second planting of tomatoes in the square garden.

Big Rescue Event in Raymond or Cat in the Tree Hoopla

This is Sammy. Sammy is the new Butterscotch and white kitten who greets us every morning when Elaine and I walk. She has a home, but is overly friendly and likes the ritual of being petted and getting a small handout of dry cat food every morning. We’ve met her owner and luckily, he doesn’t object to our ritual. In the past, we had one woman who starved the cat she had and tried to get us arrested for helping the poor animal out. Anyway, as we were walking past Sammy’s house 3 days ago, we heard a kitty in distress. When we finally looked up, we realized that Sammy was up a tree and was afraid to come down. We called and encouraged her to come down, but she was too freaked out. I knocked on Sammy’s owner’s door and he told us she had already spent a day in the tree before we found her. Not knowing what else to do, I called the mayor’s office, even though it was Saturday. The sheriff’s department came on line and I told the lady on the phone our predicament. I asked her to contact Animal Control and she did. So I drove to Sammy’s house and showed the two officers who came out where the cat was. They tried and tried for a couple of hours, but no luck.  Sammy was not coming down. I gave up for the day and went home.  The next morning, Elaine said she didn’t want to walk by the cat again since it was going on the third day and didn’t want to hear her cries of distress. So we walked another way. Unknown to us, the Animal Control officer contacted the fire department and they came over to see about the cat. A number of people were coming out of their houses to see what the commotion was about. The police were there, and a few other rescue vehicles. They decided to use the fire hose to knock the cat out of the tree. By this time, some of the neighbors set their lawn chairs in the yard and continued to watch with refreshments in hand.  Well, it took 3 tanker fulls of water for them to be successful. The more they sprayed, the higher up the cat went. Finally, Sammy fell out of the tree. There was supposed to be a guy at the bottom of the tree holding a small trampoline to catch the kitty, but when the cat came down, he panicked and ran away.Why, I don’t know, but that was what I was told by the spectators. Sammy hit the ground running and took off, away from the crowd. I guess she gave up one of her nine lives, but she survived. The next day, when Elaine and I went by Sammy’s house, she came out to greet us. I checked her all over, but she had no injuries. I was amazed. So I gave her a handful of kitty chow, smiled, and moved on.