Sunday Morning

Well there was white ice everywhere this Saturday morning in usually warm sunny Florida. It didn't last long and most of it was on the roof top of houses in the 'hood. We were spared due to the big oaks so my garden was spared from the killer ice, but it was a rather cool ride out to the rec on my bike. By late afternoon I was once more in short pants and t-shirts as the temps dramatically raised with the brilliant sunshine and blue skies.

After the cold start for Saturday morning we had the heat on for awhile but eventually had the door open later on in the day. I did about an hour of continuous play as the winners split and stayed on the pickle ball court with a new partner. Wow what a workout and I had a wet shirt by the time I left around 10'ish. I stopped off at the library to pick up another read for the weekend and found another great author, Ron Rash. I can read just a few paragraphs in a book and then I can tell if I want to read his works. He writes about Appalachia and reminds me of John Steinback with his great descriptions of that era and their hard times. I found several reads by him on the Internet and I'm excited to get started on his books. He is much like author Rick Bragg who writes a lot of non-fiction about his family and their hard times growing up in that era.

Amy called and needed help with transporting tables and chairs from church to their house for their Sunday School Christmas party. After a lunch of left overs we got ready and headed out to Sams to gas up at $2.36 and stock up on goodies for Monday nights supper. We are celebrating Christmas with GG early as she leaves for Michigan on Wednesday until after the new year. We purchased a whole pork loin with the bone-in for roasts and chops. It weighed over 30 pounds so we won't need any pork for awhile but the bone-in makes all the difference in taste when roasted or grilled. Unfortunately they only sell it in whole loins but at a very reasonable price of less than 2 bucks a pound and the butcher cut it for us as well. We got 4 roasts and several packs of inch thick chops for the grill at a later date. The freezer once more is slowly filling up.

I worked outside in short sleeves in the garden the rest of the afternoon until nearly dark when the temps began to drop rapidly. I fed all of my new seedlings of which they are putting on another new leaf and then picked my Swiss chard as GG invited us for a supper of meat loaf. We brought the chard of which she loves as much as we do and also sweet taters. We had a mice mess which cooks down to practically nothing. It is much like spinach when cooked but oh the flavor is awesome. After supper we headed home around 6:30 and Nancy wanted to start wrapping the many presents that have our closets stuffed full, yikes what a haul our kids and grand kids will take home with them on Christmas.

I tuned into the UFC program(much like boxing only bloodier) and watched some fighting much like the bare knuckle fights of yesteryear, except these fighters and can kick you also. It was hard to sleep through any of these matches as the action was non stop. I did manage to calm down a little afterwards by reading before lights out at 11'ish, LATER  Nancy took a few pics of the garden. If you notice the lettuce looks a little sparce it's because I've harvested the outer leaves twice already for salads as well as the kale and beet greens. I keep them picked down while the center of the plants continue to put on new leaves. We have already had a mess of the collards which I do the same thing which guarantees continued good eatin'.