Mother's Day

Mother's Day is always kind of a downer if one has lost one's Mom. That is an odd expression, isn't it? Like you misplaced her.

I've been thinking about my mother a lot lately, not because of today, but because my next book will be about an episode in her life and I'm trying to get inside her 22 year old head which isn't easy.

Something else that is odd is that at different stages of one's life, one resembles one or the other parent more closely. And it can change. I'm starting to look like my Mom and my mouth has turned into my grandmother's. This is really weird. The other weird thing is that Queen Elizabeth is starting to resemble my mom in her old age, and now I'm kind of wondering if one day I will look like Queen Elizabeth. Something to look forward to, I suppose.

A simple "Yes, Your Majestry" will do. LOL.

Today and yesterday we went to Briggs Nursery to buy plants. God, it's so beautiful there and they have so much wonderful horticulture that I want to swoon, and buy everything.

En route today, we passed a cemetery and there was a young woman standing by a grave blowing bubbles, and I just knew it was for her mother and that was so awfully sad.

Life is terrible and beautiful and occasionally at the same time.

Once you're committed a major indescretion at the nursery, then you have to plant everything and actually use the plant food and grass seed and ohmigod this is like work! It will take all week to master the situation, and then it's time to go back and buy more. They had some way cool garden figurines that looked like gargoyles. The little brown church on Jeckyll Island had gargoyes most unexpectedly. And a Tiffany window.

A cat's paw is useful for catching and tormenting mice, washing the cat's face, giving a disrepectful dog's nose a swipe. A cat's paw can also be used to open a sliding door and escape. Annie did this yesterday. Thisbe followed her out, looking kind of freaked. What was Annie doing outdoors? Thisbe ran in and out half a dozen times before deciding inside was definitely safer. Annie prowled around for an hour and then I caught her. Same thing today, except she went all the way down to the slough. Birds don't like that. Chipmunks don't either. A huge hawk was flying around, and I was glad then that the cat is seriously overweight.

We cooked a pork roast on the grill, recipe from NY Times Cookbook, Roast Pork with Thyme, world's best recipe. I never bother with another one since I found that. Fresh asparagus, fresh carrots, mashed potatoes and gravy and applesauce. Store bought strawberry and rhubarb pie that would have benefited from more fruit. You want it done right you have to make it yourself. Last I looked, rhubard was $5.00 a pound and the whole pie didn't cost that.

Bon Appetit and Happy Mother's Day and stop to consider how awful and awesome life can be practically simultaneously.