What started out as meeting for coffee this morning with an acquaintance who is a fitness expert of sorts, ended up being a four-hour, getting-to-know-you-better plotting session, culminating in a pact to be serious workout partners. She swore to leave our gab fest and go straight to the Y where I've been lifting and doing water aerobics, so she could join up too, and I swore to go home via Publix, and prepare for the meal plan we both agreed to. While I was absolutely dedicated to eating all organic, whole foods when the man first left town, time unsupervised and limited budgets saw me buying conventionally grown foods, that then left open the door for the occasional single serving of cake or fried chicken, until it became possible again to have a meal handed to me through a car window. I haven't completely fallen off the wagon, but I think I have a bit of road rash where I've been dragging along like Indiana Jones under the military transport vehicle. Tomorrow will be the serious rededication, while tonight is finishing off the last of the leftover beef bourginon that my younger daughter asked me to make when they came to see me. I don't want to be too terribly wasteful, after all.
I went outside to get a feel for how much work will be involved to clean up the parts of the Park that suffered the most from my neglect during the worst of the heat, rain, and bug season. The cold front that pushed through yesterday allowed the temperatures to dip down into the upper 60s last night, and the drier air today made everyone I talked to in town happier. The mosquitoes are still thick and starved for blood, and I was eaten alive just now, as usual. Most of the enormous banana spiders have moved upwards, into the trees. I saw a big one in the magnolia tree, attending to the very large cicada trapped in her web. I tried to take a picture, but I had the camera with less capability, so she may not be very visible. The man is very fond of growing grapes, and tolerant of the wild grapes that grow here. I'm not sure how he will feel about the one that has suddenly consumed his plum tree, however. It wasn't like this a couple weeks ago, but now the plum is about to be swallowed whole by the wild grape. The elephant ear growing closest to the deck seems poised to take over as well. I stood next to it and measured one leaf against my arm. It was longer than my arm from shoulder to fingertip, and I am a reasonably tall woman. That is one intimidating plant.
I harvested what may be my very last (and unexpected) edible from out back. There was one fat jalapeño on a sickly looking plant in the pallet garden. It was one of very few plants to survive that sad little experiment, but I'm looking forward to using my last little bounty tomorrow, over chicken, with the green chiles, tomatillos, and organic chicken broth I bought to accompany it.
Last night before Bonfire, I took the advice of some other blogger friends, and created a Facebook community page for this blog. It should be searchable by the title Scenes from Smith Park. It's a way to reach more people who don't know me in person, and to make the links available to more readers. Not gonna lie, I am one of those needy types who checks stats regularly, and I light up like a Christmas tree when I see hits from around the world on my map.
Also at Bonfire, one of the central characters who has been missing for months (because of his brutal work schedule), came back, and he and his fiancée brought a party game I had never played before. They had Cards Against Humanity, which is like the Apples to Apples for people who revel in the most inappropriate answers imaginable to leading questions. So, in other words, me. If you are easily offended, avoid this game. I didn't win, but I don't think it matters much. I just loved hearing all the answers that were so, so wrong.
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