Tomatoes in Party Dresses

[mallorys_camera]

Never quite fell all the way asleep last night but tossed, and turned, and sweated, and thought, This is it! You’ve got covid!

It was really, really humid. Dew point in the 70s. Quite uncomfortable.

Awoke to sodden skies and tornado warnings.

Which is good because it hasn’t rained here in more than 10 days.

But bad because tornado warnings.

###

I have been averaging one, long, meaningful conversation every three days. I mean, in addition to the myriad, short, meaningless conversations I have every day, which are like foam peanuts in a package: They serve to keep the signifiers from bumping into one another.

Yesterday’s meaningful conversation was with Neighbor Ed. We ended up standing near the mailboxes and chatting for more than an hour and a half.

We talked about our children. And our lives in retrospect.

“You know the thing about being married to Pat,” he told me, “is that I realize I have had a much more pleasant life than I would otherwise have had—“ this after telling me about a knife fight he was in in high school.

We also talked about religion.

He had been considering dropping his membership in the local reform synagogue: “I mean, if you can’t do Holy High Days, what is the point?”

I laughed. “I actually joined the Reconstructionist congregation in Woodstock this year! We don’t call it a ‘synagogue’—we call it a ‘congregation.’ I negotiated a reduced membership rate because of my modest financial circumstances. They do Zoom services! I never log on. Zoom is poison to the numinous.”

###

All day long I was in that weird, restless mood that I always hope is generative but which I suspect is only laziness. It actually takes some effort to interest oneself in one’s various projects, and I didn’t feel like making that effort. I shouldn’t have to grab the projects, I pouted. The projects should grab me.

In the end, I reread The Five Children and It.

Another book that really stands up to the passage of time.



This was yesterday’s garden haul. The little round things that look like green tomatoes in party dresses are tomatillos. I’m going to make salsa today.

Comments

[rebeccmeister]

I hope you roast everything in the colander before you turn it into salsa - that will make it utterly DELICIOUS.

[mallorys_camera]

I roast the tomatillos and the garlic. Not the tomatoes or the pepper. Your basic salsa verde (after you add lime juice and cilantro.) I am eating it on scrambled eggs at this very moment. Delicious! 😀

[smokingboot]

Loved the psammead!

Also, love your harvests. Just the look of them perks me up!