Fried green tomatoes and cheesy grits

frog resting on one of my solar waterlilies

45 cents for my Chinese paper cut. How long must it took to cut this out

beautiful zinnias from one of the Moms

Purple finch in one of my new frames. They lost their breeding colors and now look like dull sparrows. Honey from one of the Moms. She has two hives: her mellow California bees and her angry Florida bees (they came in the mail) She is too afraid to harvest the Florida hive

This handmade paper collage has real shells and a tiny sea horse. It looks good in my foyer

I harvested lots of rainbow chard, some regular chard and a bit of kale to cook up for the Moms. I had to put it in the pan in 3 batches. It cooked down to a disappointing tenth the original volume

Before we hit the resale shops, we went to Sonic Lunch, a series of outdoor concerts in downtown Ann Arbor. A different restaurant handles the food each week. This week the Produce Station featuring peach everything: peach and brie sandwiches, peach ice tea, blackberry-peach cobbler, and peach gazpacho. Yummy

I've been busy. Thursday after a 15 mile bike ride, I met a friend for lunch and an outdoor concert of this techno-rock group from UM Music School. A very mixed crowd, fun for people watching and a nice day to sit outside because the promised sun was not beating down on us. Then off to 5 different resale shops: some high end, some full of trash but I did find a lot of stuff and bought quite a bit. I've been gradually been sneaking it into the house and into a closet. If it were up to Steve, our walls would be totally bare. Every nail I hammer in annoys him so it is just easier not to point things out and do everything when he isn't around. He does sigh  some when he happens upon my handiwork. I did spend quite a bit of time hanging things up yesterday as he mowed the lawn.

 

Believe it or no, I am actually running faster these days instead of my usual decline into decrepitude. Thrills and chills. I was helped yesterday by it being only 45 degrees when I started. The temps rose more than 30 degrees by the time I served dinner outside.

 

Off to the plastic surgeon Friday morning to finalize plans for my BC repair job. December 8  will be the big day. I was not pleased to find the surgeon with two sidekicks: Frick and Frack, handsome young men with one being a med student and the other a resident. They were very sweet but it is still unnerving to bare ones deformed chest to them and discuss very personal details.  Before photos were taken from all angles. Then off to the Albatross to water things (someone is there right now as I type and another viewing will happen later today), off to the bird store to get suet for my cardinals and then off to the grocery store for last minute things for the dinner I was cooking for the Moms later that day.

 

And if life can't be any more hectic, we get a call Thursday. The downstairs condo owner was claiming water was dripping from our condo into hers. @$@! Yep we are dealing with 3 properties. Steve dealt with this disaster meeting with a plumber who could not find any obvious leaks from the bathroom directly above. But he needed to get in the other resident's condo who was not home. Finally management got ahold of her at a Tiger game and she gave permission to cut a hole in her ceiling to investigate. All dry.  The plumber resealed the toilet just in case it was the culprit but unlikely. What an annoyance and expense!!!We haven't had any more phone calls but it has only been two days. Fun times.

 

I tried to incorporate as much of my gardens into the dinner. Ripe tomatoes and basil into Caprese salad, 2 kinds of Swiss chard and kale were used to make wilted greens, green beefsteak tomatoes were turned into fried green tomatoes, chives were added to my cheesy grits. I sautéed shrimp in butter, garlic and sriracha sauce to serve onto top of the cheesy grits. One of the Moms brought her home grown zucchini in pie form along with freshly harvested honey from her hives. Another Mom along with her zinnias, brought crab stuffed mushrooms. Some of  the Moms are vegetarians but all of them eat seafood. Another brought a pepper-carrot salad. And for dessert, a Mom made a peach cobbler with pistachio crust. And all brought wine which we drank well into the orange red full moon night on my patio.