Oh yeah...it's all fun and games when the girls get together for a drink or two or twelve....things get interesting around 2 am.

Overheard in the chatroom....







Hot Monkey Love to the Purse Posse!
T

Yo...I've been crazy stupid posting pics of the gardens over at my other blog. Check it.

http://gardenjournal.blogstream.com/

T

I sho do like it when my Angel Belle gives me a sit down on the FFF.

1-In The House......Socks or bare feet?
Belle: (most of the time socks) Me: same

2-Travel....Beach or Mountains?
Belle: (Mountains) Me: Same again

3-Residential preference City or Country?
Belle: (Country) Me: Equal...right in the heart of the city...or a farm WAY out in the country (my ideal would be to have a place in both)...either extreme, but no suburbs.

4-Snacks....Salty or Sweet?
Belle: (Salty) Me: One bite of each, repeat, repeat, repeat...as in one bite of a Creamsicle, then a bite of Salt and Vinegar Potato Chips...followed by a Clausen pickle.

5-Housekeeping...Slob or Neat Freak?
Belle: (Neat freak) Me: Again...wavers between the two. Monday thru Thurs..SLOB
Friday thru Sun?...neat freak

Whew. Thanks Angel. T

In approximately 100 days, these baby muscadines will be ready to pick. We get the first round for wine and jelly. The neighborhood kids (and Butch) get the second round. The third round goes to the birds. The wine is always good...we keep experimenting with yeasts and sugars.

But muscadine jelly? Good Lord....muscadine jelly has got to be the best. Sorta "grapey with a melony undertaste". We had fresh jelly all winter from these bad girls. AWESOME. Marc put it exactly right..."you can buy better wine than we make...but not better jelly".

The whole process gets me off...planting, watching the vines grow, tying off laterals, nurturing, harvesting, squashing, distilling, seeing Marc design this year's labels, bottling, giving wines and jellies to friends, and pruning...using the extra vines in the winter to make wreaths and baskets.

Redneck Martha Stewart indeed. By the way...she did strawberry pots and showed how to make seed tapes for carrots this morning...can she be president????? Please????

Touch

Gently touch

Touch, gently touch

Touch, gently touch
not to judge
not to decide
not to project or proclaim

Touch with a hand
that touches
no more heavily than

an eye lash



So...I walked out in my pajamas this morning to check out the gardens. My sleepy eyes take in things I don't normally see.

Gotta weed here...gotta take care of some spider mites actin' the fool here...gotta spray some tea on this fungus here.

I got to the muscadines and noticed....

TINY FRUITS NOT THE SIZE OF A PINHEAD...THOUSANDS OF THEM! All over the muscadine vines.

When I reached up and felt one of the clusters, I saw my grandfather's hand. When I looked down at my bony bare feet, I saw my grandfather's long, skinny toes.

I remember why I grow things. I remember why I started planting vines. I remember that I want to preserve a piece of what Joe loved.
I love it too now.

Digging to decanting....decades of devotion, distilled at the Thanksgiving table in 1959.

Now if I could only bait a hook like he could.