This little piggy went to market.

This little piggy  stayed home.

This little piggy had roast beef.

This little piggy had known.

And this little piggy went WEE, WEE, ALL THE WAY HOME!

These are some cute pictures from Sweetgrass Dairy Farm Camp.  Enjoy, Nan

Summer Love

My first entry ever was about a tomato that cost $4.64.  It still haunts me.  Today I experienced summer love  out of my own garden.  There is nothing better on a summer day than a tomato sandwich.  Nothing.  Just look at this beautiful big ol' boy! LOVE at first bite.  All you need is two slices of bread, a generous smear of mayo, a sprinkle of kosher salt, a grind of pepper, and a splash of red wine vinegar.  Divine tomato. Look at these wonderful little cherry tomatoes, that came up as volunteers from last summer, all twenty nine of them.  I eat these like candy or treat them like a healthy "bloody mary".  For that you need a little bowl of vodka, cherry tomatoes, and a bowl of Jane's crazy salt.  Get a toothpick, dip your cherry tomato in the vodka, and then dip it in the crazy salt, and pop it in your mouth. Crazy good, Nan

I might have lost my marbles?!

     I might have lost my marbles... Well, if you read my post about peddling crap then you know my son Reid is a hoarder.  When I was cleaning his crap up the other day, I put it in a mason jar, hidden in my laundry cabinet so that it would not resurface.  Otherwise, my eight year old would declare that this "thing" was his new, favorite old  "thing", best "thing" in the world "thing"!  If you also read that post then you also know that Reid gets his peddling of crap quite naturally- moi.  I saved his "things" for a couple of reasons.  The first reason, I would like to think is about being green.  I have a hard time throwing stuff out, if I am not recycling it.  His "things" are quite cute, so I was really saving them to recycle in a favorite present of ours - Flubber.  We love to make a big batch of flubber, dye it a pretty color and put it in a big Mason jar.  When Reid is not looking, I put his  "things" in it along with some real coins.  A super fun present.  Lately though I have come to realize that I am holding on to their childhood "things" because I am afraid that if I get rid of it, then it may not resurface again. EVER.  They are growing up.  I was cleaning their tub the other night and started to tackle the basket of mess next to it, and was about to do away with the squirt shark, lobster, and penguin, and realized these  "things" might not ever make it back to this basket.  It would just become a boring basket  holding shampoo, soap, and bath clothes, so I put them back where they belong for just a little bit longer.  Anyway,  Reid is visiting his first friend, Caden, down in Monroeville, Al., ( home of Harper Lee), and I miss him.  His brother really misses him.  These "things" remind me of him and all his quirky glory, so I made this arrangement out of my garden in honor of Reid and I think it is fun.  Unfortunately, Reid will never see it because his hand would be jammed in it, in a matter of a nanosecond...declaring how could I "drown his favorite things"?!  So this will go to Firefly before he comes home.  Here is to Summer, Children, and all their Wonderful Childhood Quirks and Things! Nan

I Hate Laundry

I Hate Laundry. Yes I do!
I Hate Laundry! How about YOU?

I am a lot of things...domestic ain't one of them.  I was actually folding laundry the other night, as I am working on my husband's fathers day present... Yes, i know he's not my father, but he is the Domestic God in this household. Thank God.   Anyway, I  might have figured out a way to make the Gods happy, or in this case the God happy.  As I was pulling out the laundry from the dryer, money fell out.  A crisp laundered five dollar bill. I pulled out some more laundry and another five dollar bill fell out.  Now I am folding the laundry  and cursing every second of it.  Did I mention that I loathe laundry!  I was folding and cursing under my breathe, and another five dollar bill.  Sweet, this is helping my monotonous task.  Actually it is not. Who am I kidding.  I know whose money this is.  Mine, of course.  I don't own a purse...My God Guy would never have loose bills in his pockets.  He knows what he has down to the penny.  However, what if I started leaving fives and tens, maybe a random twenty every now and then.  I think that might make the Domestic God Guy happy.  If I never have to do laundry again,then that would make me happy, really happy. A win win.  Thank you Goddess of Loathing Laundry  for your  guidance.  Now if any of you readers have any guidance on ironing in this town, and it can not involve me, nor my Domestic God. He does enough already.  Then PLEASE fill free to share...PLEASE. 

Bouncey Balls

Peddling Crap...  I am currently "cleaning" my boy's room and I use that word loosely because it feels like I am trying to organize crap and more crap.  I am a purveyor of Crap. CRAP! It is driving me crazy.  As I was cleaning up  the crap though, I came across my son's endless amount of bouncy balls and it reminded me of one of my favorite videos of all times. It is so beautiful. I am posting a picture of my eldest son's bedside table and you will understand fully why I have to use such a crappy word like CRAP; He has a "hording" problem, a serious problem.  Any pearls of wisdom on that would be greatly appreciated. Individually it is all very interesting in his eight year old eyes, and frankly mine too.  He gets it honestly I am afraid. Moi. All together though, it is driving me crazy, so I had to get a little distance by posting something beautiful... Now back to being the peddler of CRAP. crap.

P.S.- I was told by my computer friends that all CAPS means you are screaming.  Well, that does not work for me. When I use all CAPS it just means that I saying it with a little more intonation, I don't scream.   Raise my voice?   Yes, more than I would like, but not on the computer. 

P.S.- I just realized I must have deleted his bedside pictures that I was referring to above.  Now the inside is completely cleaned out  thanks to moi...I just took one of the top and you will  clearly see the natural division between my boy's bedside table.  Ethan's side is relatively clean, Reid's  side not so much.  In his pile, he has a corn husk doll that he made, a Jacob's ladder that he made, some chipmunks, whose names escapes me, etc...In the cowboy hat is his collection of reptiles and his favorite magnifying glass that he kills/burns ants with daily. 

Local Color

This sight was parked outside of Firefly today, and it made me smile.  It made my grin a little wider knowing  what I know.  What I know is that this umbrella, along with about three others, used to sit outside of our local pool hall that serves about a thousand chili dogs a day.  It is a local institution.  The pool hall is painted Oscar Mayer orange, and if they actually used Oscar Mayer hotdogs that would be a good thing; I say that with love in my heart and hundreds of chili dogs in my gut, I do.  I know that the original owner, Joe thought these rainbow umbrellas were perfect and matched his freshly painted Oscar Mayer orange building to the tee.  What I don't think the "average joe" knows that to many the rainbow represents gay pride, and I certainly was not going to point out the symbolism because I loved it.   It was so bad it was good.  So I have been chuckling and smiling to myself for the last year or so on how opened minded our little local pool hall was and they didn't even know it.  Anyway, the pool hall recently changed hands, and  the new owner would not care if you were pink, purple,black,white, straight or gay, but he did realized that the rainbow umbrellas clashed just a little bit.  So he has obviously given them away to his loyal patrons and here it is being put to good use.  I love it.  Now I just wish that I would have grabbed my camera a little earlier, and embarrassed myself completely, by asking the twin sisters, southern californian beauties, sitting on the bench, texting their sister, who was in my store, to pose.  Who needs fiction when you have local color !

Today is the first day of June and we are well into our summer reading.  Actually it is more like what I am reading to my boys.  Do you remember Gone Away Lake, by Elizabeth Enright?   I have never forgotten it since Mrs. Hill read it to us in the third grade.  It was magical to me then and so charming to me now.  Here is a passage that I think is perfect for today, as I sit here with my hat head, sticky sun-screened self.  I have an array of colored paints from my ankles to my elbows and everywhere in between.  I am taking mornings off to teach art and crafts at Sweetgrass Dairy Farm Camp.  It's what summer should be.  Enjoy.

"If you could just hold onto it," said Portia, sitting back on the warm grass.

Her knees were stiff from kneeling.

"Onto what?   The weather?"  Aunt Hilda sat back on the grass, too, and pushed her tumbled

hair away from her brow with the back of her muddy hand.  She was a very pretty woman.

"The weather, partly, but mostly the time.  June like this, and everything starting to be. 

Summer starting to be.  Everything just exactly right."

"But if it were this way every day, all the time, we'd get too used to it.  We'd  toughen to it," said Aunt Hilda.

"People do. It's just because it doesn't and can't last that a day like this is so wonderful."

Good things must have comparers, I suppose," said Portia. "Or how would we know how good they are?"

"Exactly!" Aunt Hilda went back to her weeding; and after a minute Portia did, too.

I am also posting a picture of my son and his favorite person, who happens to be his cousin Lewis.  It is taken from the screened porch looking out to the ocean at St. Teresa, Fl.   A great family friend's  house built in the 1930's.  Simple pleasures, Nan