wednesday's words and wanderings and wonderings

For four consecutive Wednesdays, I drove to a charming store in Dayton's Historic Inner East neighborhood to pick up a CSA bouquet of flowers. Last Wednesday was the final pick up and I'm going to miss this weekly routine. Kathleen, the owner of Pink Moon Goods, was such a delight to talk to. She's an inspiring entrepreneur and has high hopes for the neighborhood's progress.

Thursday had an early start to the day. Street grinders and dump trucks lined the street at 6:45 and the grinding and filling trucks promptly began at 7:00.  Todd took off to the Cincinnati Airport for a football and fun-filled weekend in Las Vegas - the Cleveland Browns played the Las Vegas Raiders. The Adventures of Travel Penguin was in town and we met for a tasty breakfast...what fun!

Thursday afternoon was a workday at the farm. Thursdays are fun because we are loaded with brand new, fresh produce and the half-off produce section is filled with last week's veggies. People flock to "The Treasure Corner." A couple items that grace the checkout stand are these painted pumpkins. White pumpkins serve as a canvas for these works of art. The detail is outstanding. This certainly was and is a labor of love for this artist. I bought some produce, too. A fresh head of broccoli said, "Take me home!", the watermelon radishes...had to try them, and the red peppers came from "The Treasure Corner." Going to make a roasted red pepper feta dip with those. I love my market basket. It's an Indian basket from the Southwest. My mom never used it. After she died, I thought, "This needs to be used," and I hope she looks down with a smile when she sees it filled with food that will be prepared with love.

Facebook informed me that National Daughters Day was September 25 and then National Sons Day was September 28. My "Gang of Four" has grown to seven strong and just a little secret, soon to be eight in the coming year.

Just have to show you the inside of the watermelon radishes I purchased. They're beautiful and so delicious! Hurricane Helene's remnants blew through Dayton and caused a 30-hour power outage (some are still without power as this is written). My favorite way to eat them is raw with a sprinkle of salt. Ohmygosh...a little bit of color and comfort to bring some joy to the mayhem.

And last, one more Hurricane Helene story...After the power returned, I was so grateful to fix a cup of coffee to start the day. There really is something about that first sip of the morning. I like milk in my coffee, the milk had spoiled, time for resourcefulness. The can of whipped topping was there for a reason and it made a frothy, celebrate-the-power-coming-back-on cuppa. Life was (and is) good.