Meal #53,672: Organic Beef Salad

Hawkeye and I were dining out and she & I figured we each eat 1,000 meals a year, given that we skip some, and she had therefore eaten 55,000 meals and me 53,000 and change. If you work hard and play hard it stands to rights that you should eat well. Here you see that a friend gifted me with an organic beefsteak I pan-fried and sliced and tossed into an organic-lettuce salad -- that way I got everything good-for-me in one bowl. It looked so tasty I wanted you to at least see it. Dessert was watermelon. That's not wine; it's grape juice cut with water. I never drink by myself (wish you'd been here; I would've brought out some real wine!). But I like the look and it don't taste bad either. Some time ago I realized that if I don't feed myself good no one else will!

Yeah, it's the same kind of bowl I use for grits. I have a passion for this set of 6 (now 5) Williams-Sonoma pasta plates from the middle 1990s, got pictures of herbs in the bottom.

Rural Rainbow

This morning, another miracle:

True Grits

Grits are like a cross between mashed potatoes and cream of wheat -- warm, filling, milky (if you put milk on) and buttery (if you put butter on). Can't do without em.

These are Quaker but aren't instant. I put em in the bowl with water/milk, and microwave for 6 minutes, 66 seconds (easy to remember, easy to key in). Dab the butter on last for maximum butter buzz. The other brand I eat is Jim Dandy.

Hot grain cereals in general, for breakfast, plus some fresh fruit, can fuel you pleasantly all morning. Makes me feel like Wonder Woman. Try it; don't turn up your nose. Grits are corn and good for you. It doesn't remind me of a bowl of vomit the way oatmeal does. I can handle oatmeal only rarely, and prefer it baked with milk and egg into a sort of pudding, with raisins or other dried fruit in it.

Venus Conjunct Regulus

Sky phenomenon just before dawn this morning: the 2nd-brightest star, Regulus, "the heart of the Lion" in the constellation Leo, partnered up for a good long while with the brilliant planet Venus (top), the morning star right now. I don't know what this may mean to the astrologers, but it has to be good, something about love and nobility of heart. While I was outside taking this photo, the local buck came out of the woods into the meadow and snorted at me. I was on his property, after all.

Late Summer Blues

Sorry to see this beautiful summer go -- along with my hummingbirds, who left Sept. 12 -- I am looking for beauty wherever I can -- in this case in a floodplain. Farming, like fishing, is about hope...

Japanese Print

After 2.5 inches of rain in the last few days, there's fog in the early morning. This morning's eastern sky looked like this; ink on paper. Exactly like this, colors and all. There was no photoshopping.

Snapper

Had no idea after 8 years living here that a snapper resided in LaBarque Creek shallows. Only because he or she stirred a little did he break up his perfect algae-coated camouflage and show himself. He was approximately 14 inches at the widest point, and I gave him lots of personal space. Small bluegill darted near him but not quite within reach. Watched for a while to see if the snapper would try to grab them. No; he/she was patient, very patient, waiting for one of the fish to be stupid.