Books and Vegetables and Birds

 A thirteen-pound box of books arrived on my porch from a friend. Wow, what a gift to me. There was only one title I recognized, the one I will read first from this box. I was thinking about rereading it, so this works. If you want a really good laugh, read The Sweet Potato Queen's Book of Love, or something like that. I have read several of this woman's Sweet Potato Queen books, and they are all easy reads and humorous. Southern women will see the humor and recognize the women in the books. 

I finished Hillbilly Elegy. It was wonderful. I still am ready Salt Wars, Beowulf, and two other books I have started. So, I will finish four books and start on the Sweet Potato Queens book. 

Thanks, Janet!

Today, we went to a food giveaway. It was all vegetables. Sometimes, it is more balanced. Often it has lots of meat. Other days it has breads, chips, and sweets. This week's haul is superior--all beautiful vegetables. I will give half to my friend who is working her last day today, minimum wage and part-time. She will use all this. I gave her approximately half.

4 largish squash, dozen sweet potatoes, two messes of green beans, 4 English cucumbers, 1 eggplant, 6 apricots, 1 regular cucumber, head of cabbage. One bag had one eggplant and one bag had apricots. She gets the eggplant and 3 apricots. I hate eggplant and love apricots. Plus, there are two messes of greens. One mess is almost 2 feet long and huge. She can have that one. I will take the smaller bunch. I have no idea what kinds of greens these are. But, I like greens. I will probably cut the cabbage in half and share that. I did.

Just before we went there, we got a bag of red potatoes and a bag of Vidalia onions at Publix. We have more than enough vegetables. 

I think I have enough fresh vegetables to last a week and freeze lots, too. I am so tired today. Besides taking care of all the vegetables that were free, I need to wash the hummingbird feeders, fill them and get them back outside. Flowers need deadheading! And, the pork butt needs to be taken off the bone. I also need to freeze the ground beef. 

Friday night we still had the pork in the crockpot plus cabbage and greens on the stove and sweet potatoes, potatoes and squash on two very small pans in the oven. The house smelled nice. 

Friday night, we are having a bit of the pork butt along with a couple of potatoes and squash that are cooking in a bag with a bit of the pork juice and garlic powder.  I managed to scorch the greens. I am so furious at me. I told Tommy to see if he could get any greens off the top of the scorched ones. 

His plate was full--pork, potatoes, squash, cabbage, greens. I had pork, cabbage, potatoes, and squash. There is enough for several more days. 

Friday, when Tommy was watering flowers, the woman across the street told him how beautiful our flowers were. I was gratified when he told me! 

When he came in, he told me two birds were dead on the porch, guessed they fell or were pushed from their nest. They were freshly dead from the condition of one burst open body, he said. ( I don't think baby birds burst open on impact. Maybe a big bird pecked them.)I wonder if there are more babies. These had no feathers, just some fuzz on part of their bodies. I wonder if the mockingbirds killed these babies. Mockingbirds have been hanging around here for a few days.