Juneteenth Monday

Odds and Ends Socks

The 19th of June is known as Juneteenth and marks the day, June 19, 1865, when the enslaved people in Galveston, Texas were officially proclaimed free, two and a half years after President Lincoln had issued the emancipation proclamation.  It is a federal holiday in the United States.  

Monday started out cloudy and overcast, but, there was sunshine in the afternoon.

In the morning, I changed the dust sheets on the family room sofas, did a load of laundry, tidied the kitchen a bit, watered some of the plants in the front garden, and scheduled a regular car maintenance service for Tuesday.  

Then, I picked peaches.  The majority of them are still not ripe enough for canning, but, the longer I leave them on the tree, the more are being pecked at by the birds!  My plan is to pick them and leave them to ripen in the house for a couple of days. 

Some of the peaches I picked had some bruised areas.  I cut off the bruised parts, sliced the good portions and stewed them with some lemon juice and sugar.  

In the meantime, I called a couple of friends and offered to bring them some fresh peaches.  Friend N told me I didn't have to bring them to her, she could pick them up on her way home from an appointment on Wednesday afternoon.  I said that was fine.  Then, she called me back almost immediately.  She had mentioned my offer of peaches to her husband and he didn't want to wait until Wednesday!  LOL!  They drove over right away (they don't live that far from me) and I gave them about a dozen peaches and some fresh blueberries.  

Friend S was working late and said she'll ask her husband if he could drive over, later, to collect the peaches.  I said I could bring them over and leave them on her doorstep.  She said her daughter was home to accept them.  I picked a bag of curry leaves, too, to take to her and drove over.  Friend S's daughter was waiting for me by the curbside; I handed her the bag of peaches and she handed me a covered foil container with dinner!  Rice and curries my friend had cooked before she went to work!  How wonderful!  What a blessing!  After I came home, I called friend S to thank her for the dinner.  She brushed it off saying it was just something she had cooked for the family, that if she had known in advance that I was coming, she would have prepared something more!  

It was past 6:00 p.m. when I got home and instead of having my usual evening cup of tea, I had an early dinner!  There was rice, fish curry, Thai eggplant curry, and sauteed water spinach.  It was all so delicious!  Friend S is a good cook and her curries are truly a taste of home.  There's more leftover for tomorrow.  Then, I had some of the stewed peaches with yogurt for dessert.

After dinner, I cleaned the litter box and took the trash cans to the curb for pick up in the morning.  And I finished knitting another pair of socks with leftover wool from previous knitting projects (the blue wool from the last sweater and the multicolored yarn from an earlier pair of socks).  

The neighbors took down their tents, today.  

Today, I am grateful for:

- Peaches to share with friends
- Friend S sending dinner home with me!
- A new pair of socks
- A safe drive to friend S's and back
- Phone calls with family and friends; emails from friends

Today's joyful activity was sharing the bounty from my garden with friends.

The big plan for tomorrow is taking the car for a service.  Everything else depends on how long that takes!  

How was your Monday?  What are your plans for Tuesday?