My days of the week each have personalities, probably defined by my scheduled activities. There are writing days (my favorite); there are days to schedule meetings and other activities that require me to leave home, and then there are those days that throw me a few surprises.
I happen to be one of “those” people who look forward to Mondays because Monday says, “Let’s start all over.” But then come the unstructured Saturdays – aahhh! They sound unstructured, but this unplanned Saturday started last night when I made the breakfast casserole which we would enjoy after a planned early morning walk and getting dressed for the day because I had other plans. In my unplanned Saturday, I was headed to the Cibolo Creek Nature Center where they have the most wonderful Farmers’ Market on Saturday mornings.
There on the banks of this creek that meanders through Kendall County are farmers selling vegetables and fruit that are picked this morning, not the grocery store kind that were picked Thursday-a-week-ago and then shipped from who knows were. A barista and his wife selling their own blend of coffee beans –quickly becoming our favorite. Ambitious young women selling flower arrangements in Mason jars. And adolescent girls selling eggs, blue ones and light green ones and brown ones with yolks the color of sunflowers.
Oh yes, I paid too much for a small jar of honey and twice too much for green eggs, but I got more than I paid for. I got to hear peoples stories’ – young girls raising chickens and selling eggs to make money for a special trip, the farmer’s wife who tried to grow red okra, the school teachers trying to add to their income by roasting and selling coffee beans and how it started as a hobby, the grandmother telling me how difficult it is to make tomato jam, and why the farmer had no fresh beets today. It was a tent-filled meadow under the canopy of some giant oaks, and stories were being told and listeners were being delighted – at least, this one was.
Pound Cake Cookies that add only smiles, not pounds.
My lovely, unstructured Saturday brought me home to sauté fresh Swiss chard and slice heirloom tomatoes to go with the rest of lunch that I left prepared. And then came a restful nap during a rain shower. After the nap, Bill decided to paint and set up his easel in the picture window. And I went to the kitchen.
It wasn’t long before my kitchen smelled like the Bear Moon Bakery on Main Street in Boerne — my Pound Cake Cookies, just my favorite cookies on earth. They’re like eating that crunchy part of the top of Mama’s pound cake, and making them puts a smile on my face. Even the cookies have a story, and the linen table cloth underneath has a story. I found it in a resale shop in Sonoma, CA when shopping with a friend. It was pure linen stamped with a design for someone to embroider. The embroidering had only been started, but I imagined the characters involved in the story that brought it to the resale shop all those years ago. I had a plan for that discarded linen table cloth that cost me all of five dollars. I have a Mama who does meticulously beautiful needlework, and I sent it to her with a “Please, Mama.” And years later, I’m still enjoying that piece of linen-with-a-story, remembering a beautiful Saturday in Sonoma and remembering the day I opened the box with the finished tablecloth Mama sent. And then there’s my favorite teacup . . . that story’s for another day. I have the rest of a perfectly lovely, unstructured Saturday to enjoy.
