The Strange Birds of Flannery O'Connor by Amy Alznauer and Ping Zhu arrived two days early! And below are my three favorite spreads!!! The writing, as I expected, is lyrical, and having read Flannery myself and visited her homes (it's funny that both Amy and I thought of it as taking pilgrimages!) I can say both the writer and illustrator have captured Flannery's sense of the strange. It's really a pity that she never wrote any children's stories because I believe children can and do appreciate honesty in stories. And Flannery could see the truth.
Gardening update: I've been processing a lot of tomatoes--making a mild salsa, then a medium, but now that we have more peppers, I don't know...we might have to have those deadly ABTs--jalapeno peppers filled with cream cheese and wrapped with bacon :) As it is with gardening, the critters find the goodies. At first I saw only ants--they were nibbling cowpeas down to the nub but not the black beans. But a possum or raccoon is eating our tomatoes so now I pick them earlier and let them ripen on the counter. We always have a fresh salad and I love that Michael planted not just the plain greens but spicy ones like mustard and arugula. Boy do they give a zing, especially the mustard greens. I do have to check that I accidentally don't bring in a frog or a bee. The bees like to sip on the water from the rock wool. And I love our fresh okra, except every time I pick some, someone eats them before I get a chance to make bhindi bhaji.
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Here's my girl making art with the flowers from our garden. So pretty! But God's art is the most amazing! The camera doesn't do justice. Still I take pictures just to remember what a beautiful sunset I'm treated to every evening.