FRIDAY FRIVOL

Not-quite-sunny this morning---hope the yard guys can get the cleanup and mowing done tomorrow after this week's thunder-and-windstorms. The whole yard is full of sticks, twigs, and fallen leaves, and the patio is much the same, with the addition of bee-jillions of tiny green berries from the enormous tree overhead. They hitch a ride into the house and downstairs on your shoe-treads, and then catch you unawares in your sock feet---ouch.

And we still haven't put a seed in the garden. DS got it tilled almost three weeks ago, and it looked perfect on Saturday when he finished---I could not wait to get going with all the big basket of seeds (not to mention the twelve boxes of assorted bulbs which Caro gave me for an EARLY MD gift so we could get them put out---they're still in the bag, patiently awaiting the planting). The rains have not been every day, but they have been fulsome and persistent, so that wading into that big circle of turned earth would mean a cloddy mess and lost shoes.

So here we wait, for the drying and the sun.

Breakfast with tee-ninecy banana-nut muffins---the little bags of Martha White just-add-milk-or-water mixes are excellent, and one bag makes six regular or the tiny dozen muffins. Two minutes to get them in the oven, and they're out when the bacon's finished. I measure the milk into the big Pyrex measuring cup, dump in the mix, and just stir it up from the bottom. The handy pour-lip and a rubber spatula, and the filling of the tiny wells of the pan is easy-peasy.


And a lovely lemon-chess pie into the oven this cool morning---it perfumes the whole house with the zest and sweet sugary smells. Pay no attention to that raggedy crust---I roll it VERY thin so that it stays very crispy and crunchy all around.

And that's about it, except for the dishes and the dryer calling my name. But not very loudly. If I listen carefully, there's just a whisper in the distance, like echoing bells receding into the forever, whilst on this cloudy day, all these lovely colorful blogs of sunshine in the South and other people's pretty houses and parties and dishes are a welcome clamor.

And I must answer. Happy Weekend, Everyone!!