Home Alone
Sand pears and Turk’s caps are in abundant supply now.
This weekend Rob was out of town, so I was left to my own devices. I made butterscotch brownies and played with the cats. I also picked our very first pears and our first White Globe eggplant . . . and I did a whole bunch of mulching and weeding and got really, really sweaty and covered with gnats. I am a native Floridian and love our terrible muggy weather, but I must say it was nearly unbearable outside this afternoon. The gnats were the worst part. They tickled my eardrums and feasted on my cuts as I worked on extending the stone path under the big water oak behind the vegetable garden.
This morning was my very favorite part of the weekend. I got up early and had butterscotch brownies and Coke for breakfast. Then I brushed Foxy and Carl and Jammer, and everybody was purring like crazy and rolling around, reveling in the creature comforts. Then I went out in the dew and picked pears. I love to go outside really early and see the sunrise lighting up the curving swaths of meadow–the bear paws and rosinweed. The pears were lit up too. I was walking around amazed at the sunrise, the play of light. I was finding interesting mushrooms and petting Babs and eating pears. Our pears are sand pears, the Carnes variety to be exact. They aren’t sickly sweet and mushy like grocery store pears. No, they’re crunchy and tangy, sweet and tart both at once, gritty–and the skin is speckled. I love a good sand pear.
Outside early, in the dew, I saw two spunky mockingbirds . . . and the small friendly box turtle that likes to eat cat food. Whenever I feed the cats I always set out a special bowl for the turtle, and he comes and eats alongside Bernie, Clark, Babs, and Greg. The cats just ignore the turtle (Rob guesses they regard him as something along the lines of a rock), and the turtle never seems to feel out of place in their company. I think what I like about him (the turtle) is that he’s oblivious of his own absurdity; he never seems to feel self-conscious when eating cat food with a bunch of cats.
