pax

"pop beans" Malinda and Joe called them our years in Japan, I don't remember why, maybe because you popped them into your mouth direct from the inedible shell, IDK, maybe the little beans popped in the mouth while being chewed. IDK. It doesn't matter. Nowadays I think we know them as edamame. Linda cooked a package, we ate a few "pop style" and she shelled the rest, I ate three or four teaspoons at breakfast,

together with a long, thin strip of cornbread, double-toasted in the little oven, a pat of plant butter from avocado, and old fashioned cane syrup poured over.

Coffee, hot & black.

Sean of the South wrote a column recently about cornbread, and he got it right: cornbread is Southern food that's made without sugar. Linda made this batch yesterday morning, and I'm working on it. It's so good that it does not need butter. Most things need either mayonnaise or butter, but this cornbread needs nothing. If you want it sweet, there's molasses or there's cane syrup and you know you're home.

Pleasant outside right now, at least on the leeward side. We're expecting stormy weather today as TS Nicole moves into Apalachee Bay and storm bands sweep around over us, but who knows for sure. Here, the wind should be from the north. It's said that we need the rain, so fine. At the moment TS Nicole is stirring up the mess left by Hurricane Ian a few weeks ago.

You get your hurricane, a moment in the sun while Cantore's down the street, gapers watching you on TV the next day looking at the splinters and rubble like a crowd gathered around a bloody car crash, then you're no longer news, the world moves on to the next realtime disaster, leaving you on your own to deal with it. Handle it, handle it. Panhandle Strong and other slogans. It takes years, but in Time someone says "It's better than ever."

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Sound of jets being scrambled out of Tyndall? Ospreys hunting and shrieking. Mostly cloudy, 68°F, 64%, wind from the north at 16 mph. Beck door's closed and locked against the wind, but doors on the south side are open to the pleasant morning and to share with neighbors the fragrance of collards on the stove. Collards, cornbread, what's missing? Maybe chicken & rice? Sweetened ice tea?

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Here for this coming Sunday is that collect so many people love:

Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen

Hatchett reports this collect was composed for the 1549 prayerbook.

Thursday: pax