PeegeBlog:

Last Saturday was a wonderful day at the coffee shop, thanks to the women of Crone's Cradle Conserve, Helen Miller and the singing group The Sweet Addled Minds and all the delightful guests. Crone's Cradle cooked up a storm of fish, hush puppies, cole slaw, grits (yes, grits is grits) sweet potatoe pie and their famous wild orange aid...made form the juice of our sour orange trees. Now we have learned something new to do with all the darned things:-)

On Saturday April 5th, Crone's Cradle with have their annual Garden Festival at the conserve..If you click the link in the paragraph above you will find out lots of information about the conserve and also diretions to get there..It is out in the middle of what seems like nowhere, so print out those directions (it's not really hard to find) and keep on going even if you think you have gone so far you'll be in Kansas. It is well worth the trip. That Saturday will be a grand day to visit with demonstrations of pottery throwing, talks on growing in this wacko climate of ours , good food, crafts and plants for sale. It will be an all-round good time.

These women really understand the value of community, because they called me up immediately when they heard of my financial issues and volunteered to do this fish fry as a benefit to the coffee shop. They are really truly wonderful women and I hope you will all support them as they have supported the community by doing this event.

Helen somehow got most of the Sweet Addled Minds to come and entertain with their great singing...even Pat Paul was moved to leave the North-40 for a few hours:-) Her sister Laurie has one heck of a voice..well, they all are wonderufl, solid, supportive women who walk the talk of sisterhood..Once again, I must say that sisterhood may turn out to be powerful after all.

It was also great to see so many people come from Gainesville and eat and commune with us Melrosians. It was simply a wonderful day all round..Thanks to everyone who participated and contributed generously.

P.S.- We'll do it again sometime in the Fall. If you would like to be a part of a new group forming...Friends of the Coffee Shop call me at the shop or stop by 352-475-3737

Here is a beautiful woman, both in her heart and what meets the eye..This woman has made my life a lot easier lately by giving me six pair of brand new socks..It has changed my life.Now when I get myself dressed in the mornings I don't have the old problem of finding two socks that not only match each other but have no holes in the heel...Life, Dear Agnes, is a strange affair" and the simple things in life are sometimes the most meaningful. Thank you dear Hanna, artist, poet, writer..I will be saying I knew you when you were in the midst of writing your delightful book...starring Chik Little and her adventures...when you publish it and are wildly famous. Oh, and rich. yes, rich in money, moolah, greenbacks...there are so many words for money and so many feelings and issues attached to it..Too much or too little are a problem for anybody..Lately, as some of you may know, I haven't had enough of it manifesting..It is crummy to have money come in and go out, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly...day after day of paying, paying, paying and always having something much more pressing and important than buying socks. So, I haven't bought socks in ...heck, three years and all I had in my underwear drawer were onesies...you know that routine...the washer eats them, the dryer hides them...they go to sock never-never land, leaving you with one green argyle sock, one tan thin sock and a dark brown thick one...nothing works until someone comes along who buys you six...was it six pair?..maybe more..I keep reaching into the bag and pulling out nice beautiful, unadulterated socks every day. New socks have made me feel like life might be worth living after all...And a few more acts of random kindness have also helped in the last week. More than a few.

It actually is odd that I kept telling people I was broke and I guess no one really believed it until I wrote them all an email...I guess that validated my claims and even though it did not make me eligible for food stamps, did cause someone to bring me a case of Girl Scout Cookies...the mint ones..A WHOLE DARN CASE OF THEM!!!!!Oh yes...I got a whole stash of baked goods, zucchini bread, many sour lemon pies...a really wonderful picnic dinner and I even think that little email has landed me a lunch at Blue Water Bay, not to mention some checks. I appreciate the checks...a lot....the support I have received is well, touching..I keep thinking I am going to cry and then I don't.. Eventually someone will do something, one small thing and I will indeed cry..Crying is good. It truly is and I encourage my readers to have a good cry every week or so. That is what one of my old therapists said would help keep a person mentally stable during just regular life. Better than high blood pressure, ulcers(I had one) or heart attack...crying, the best medicine:-) or is it laughter? Laughter is good too and I have had a heck of a lot of laughs this week...and that is good...that is very good.

Thank you dear loyal beautiful caring sisters...funny, only women gave me checks...As a sociologist I always create statistics in certain situations...No men gave me checks...wonder why that is? I will have to think about that..why no men gave me checks...they spend their money at my place on a regular basis..Guess it might be more important to the women to have a space like that little coffee shop/ plant emporium/antique bazaar and oh yes.....the most important.....gathering place for us creative/zany/smart people.....a place with the yin energy...without the fluff, as one of my customers said...A strong female space without the fluff...I hope the White House gets a make-over into female without the fluff..Yes?