Yesterday, I took a trip to Jungle Jim's with a fellow church member. She picked me up shortly after the boys left for school. The drive down, which I had feared would be full of awkward silences, was a nice getting-to-know-you chat the whole way. She went the back way, through Waynesville, on the way down & the trees are just blooming everywhere! I love this time of year.
Once at the store, we stopped for a Chantico at the Starbucks. P had never tried it...and loved it. She is a chocolate fan, too. I picked up all kinds of treats for J, the boys, and myself. I even got some bottles of Thums Up from India for when our book group discusses Life of Pi. That will be fun to serve!
After shopping, we stopped for lunch at Bahama Breeze. I love the colorful island ambiance there. We chit-chatted our way through lunch, too. She had a chicken kebab with tamarind glaze on saffron rice while I munched half of a Cuban. I also tried their Lemon Breeze...who needs alcohol when you have sweet-tart lemonade like that? It was fun to chew on the sugarcane garnish, too. It brought to mind trips to the IGA with my mom when I was young, and how she would let me get pieces of sugarcane to suck on. It also reminded me of ordering guarapos in the Cafeteria Latino-Americana in my father's Miami.
Once home, I worked on laundry & housecleaning. Picked up some groceries & made a couple of chicken pies to take out to the grands' for dinner. We arrived there right at the appointed hour, hot pies, salad, and peaches ready to serve. We had a little time before the pie would be too cool to eat, so my grandmom took me, J, and Pie on a walk around the yard. The dogwoods, apple tree, and huge lilac bush are in full flower right now & the yard feels full of fairy energy. There are drifts of dogwood branches in vases in her kitchen, too. It reminds me of going over there when I was little to make May baskets with her & my mom. We may go out there Sunday to do that again. I had J smell the lilacs & she said, "I'm 10 years old again & I am cutting lilacs for Granny on the creek bank". I love how smell can evoke memories so strongly.
On our wildflower walk, my grandmom showed us the nodding trillium, other trillium, violets, bloodroot (J tried a little of the sap on her hand & it matched her sweater perfectly). She explained that the dogwood "bloom" is actually leaves, while the center part is the flower. J & Pie went down into the woods proper, to check out the creek, looking for critters and other plants. I hoped they might spot a morel or thirty, but no such luck.
Dinner was a pleasant affair. I delight in feeding these two people who have always meant so much to me, who are among my best friends, who have done so much for me, and have given me so much by their very being. Everyone liked the pie, but I managed to forget that my granddad doesn't eat peaches. Oh, well, no harm done. He is certainly not the sort to holler about being served something he won't eat. He simply asks for more pie & leaves his fruit untouched.
The boys hung out in the living room after dinner, Pie looking at Far Side comics & working a very difficult puzzle, while we adults chatted at the table. Once home, we all got to bed rapidly.
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