Little Blessings

I enjoy taking my daughter, Alana, to school in the mornings. I’ve noticed that the drive usually assumes one of at least three moods or tones. There are mornings when she wants to listen to the radio or one of her CDs; some mornings we forego music and talk to each other; and then there are mornings when we’re quiet, together in the truck, alone with our thoughts. We had such a morning recently.

I had just turned onto Bethany Road, that long winding stretch of road that would take us to Alana’s school when, after several miles of silent contemplation, she spoke-up and said, “I miss that patch of honeysuckle that grows near the garden where we used to live.”

I was surprised at where her thoughts had taken her and asked, “Why is that, little girl?”

“I miss the smell of honeysuckle. I miss plucking a blossom and tasting its sweetness.”

For a moment, I wondered if she had read the haibun from my Frugal Poet post of two weeks ago, but then it occurred to me that she had seen a patch of honeysuckle alongside the road and the memory of me having shown her how to taste the plant’s sweet nectar prompted her comment.

“Don’t worry,” I told her. “We’ll find a patch of honeysuckle soon.”

Alana (most folks call her Lainy) and I enjoy riding our bikes in the evening. Our current route has been to follow 9th Avenue north until it ends at Monroe Street, which is about three blocks from Poet’s Cottage. We turn left onto Monroe, then turn left onto 10th Avenue, where we coast down a gradual hill toward Main Street. We then turn east onto Main Street and back onto 9th Avenue.

We were in the process of taking a second turn around our route later that day when I happened to notice a patch of honeysuckle on 9th Avenue, in a vacant lot just up the street from Poet’s Cottage. I stopped at the honeysuckle patch and pointed so Lainy would see the blossom of her longing earlier in the day. She smiled, slid off her bike and said, “Do you think we’ll get in trouble?”

I smiled, “I don’t think the folks who own this vacant lot will miss a couple of honeysuckle blossoms.”

She plucked a honeysuckle blossom, then one for me and waited. I then realized that tasting a honeysuckle's nectar is something that she wanted to share with her dad.

My daughter and I have been residents of Poet’s Cottage for eight months now. I could not ask for a better daughter and friend to have as a roommate. Our circumstances have not been without hardships, but we are blessed and thankful to be where we are today.

We ain't all about biscuits and gravy here in the south. This week’s Frugal Poet offering is the perfect side for a spring or summer meal. Thank you Beth Pulliam for sharing this delicious recipe!

Marinated Veggie Salad

Drain and combine:

1 can shoepeg corn
1 can french style green beans
1 can bean sprouts
1 can lima beans
1 can peas
1 2 oz jar pimentos
1 can water chestnuts
1 cup chopped celery
1 thinly sliced onion

Marinade:

1 cup sugar
3/4 cup oil
3/4 cup apple cider vinegar
dissolve 1 T salt in 1 T water
1 t basil
1 t oregano
1 t garlic powder

Whisk marinade together and pour over veggies. Refrigerate overnight.

Continuing with this week’s theme of vegetables and plants that sustain us, I offer this haiku:

recession —
poke salad growing
in a sidewalk crack

The Heron’s Nest: Volume XIII, Number 4: December, 2011