Pumpkin Muffins and a Camellia Show
A vegan pumpkin muffin posing with climbing asters, chokecherries, and sumac berries
Apparently she had asked Kris, “Should I wear makeup or go with a natural look?”
I believe Kris advised a natural look, but Sophie has her own ideas.
Bun and I kept complimenting her on her lipstick. “Well, let me just say I love the ruby lips,” I said. “I noticed them from all the way across the room.”
“Yowza,” Bun said.
“Stop talking about my lipstick!” Sophie cried.
She was so cute, in her little babyish T-shirt and her screen-siren lipstick. She was being really good. She was actually really interested in looking at all the camellias.
Let me tell you a little bit about the camellia show. In the auditorium there are tables and tables full of little water-filled cups, each containing a single camellia flower. The best flowers win ribbons; the show is a competition. Bun and I were going from table to table admiring the flowers and taking notes on the cultivars we liked so we can buy them for our gardens.
Here is my list:
Cile Mitchell
Angel Kloman
Dream Boat
Mr. Sam
Buttons and Bows
Satsuma Kurenai
Sophie was walking with us.
“I really like the peony form,” I commented to Bun.
“Panty form?” Sophie said.
“Peony,” I said.
“Oh,” Sophie said. “It sounded like you said ‘panty.’”
“Well, I didn’t,” I said.
Sophie’s favorite camellia flowers were the very, very tiny miniature ones. Like Sweet Jane.
“Don’t you like Sweet Jane?” Sophie asked.
“Oh, yes,” I said. “It’s very cute.”
“Then why don’t you write it down?”
“That’s a good idea. I think I will.”
I couldn’t believe how good she was being; she was so engaged in looking at the camellias and choosing her favorites. She was by far the youngest person at the show. At age 34, Bunny was the second youngest. Most of the visitors to the camellia show seemed to be well over 90.
It was a really cold windy brutal day. The weather was very grim.
“Ah, the perfect day for a camellia show,” Kris said, rolling her eyes. Kris hates the annual camellia show. And she hates winter in general.
I got to see Jake for just a minute later in the day. I went by Kris’s house and Jake was all upset because he thought he’d been “ripped off”; Phil (his father) had bought him a 99-cent access card to some sort of kids’ website and then Sophie had broken it to him that the website was actually free. So Jake was fretting and sort of crying. Apparently he felt like a chump.
Kris was trying to cheer him up: “Daddy bought it. It’s on Daddy, man. It’s not on you.”
And that did seem to make Jake feel a little better.
“Hi, Jake,” I said. But he barely looked at me. He was so busy on the computer.
“Gosh,” I said. “Jake’s acting like we’re not even friends.”
“Well, we’re not friends,” he said matter-of-factly, perhaps impatiently. “You’re my aunt, and I’m your nephew.”
Later Kris said to me, “I’m actually surprised he knew what his relation to you was. I thought he might have been like, ‘Now how do I know her again?’”
So true. That would be so Jake.
Vegan banana-oatmeal-raisin cookies with a sprig of waxmyrtle
Bunny has a great collection of camellias (this is one of them). Next year I really want her to enter some blooms in the show!
Sophie at the camellia show in her fetching red lipstick