The Last Fire of the Season

It’s a quiet Sunday afternoon in rural Southwest Alabama. I am sitting by the fire (yes, you heard me right, but the fire) with harp music on the CD player. We’ve been hot for weeks now, but I knew it wasn’t really spring because the pecan trees had not leafed out yet. They are the last to put on leaves in the sdpr8ing and the first to loose them in the fall. We’ve had torrential rains lately. They are most welcome to us gardeners. I went to Selma last week to a meeting and my friend took me to the Cahaba Mental Health Center to buy some plants. I got some perennials to put into my flower beds. The rains started that night. I put the plants out in the afternoon. I also dressed my antique roses and other plants with some rabbit fertilizer that I had gotten last fall from John Hall, a local rabbit producer. He has this contraption that turns the rabbit pellets and somehow takes the fertilizer smell away. I usually don’t get the plants out the same day as I buy them because I’m on the road so much seeing all the wonderful things in our area and helping to plan more. I did get them in the ground this time. I walked around the yard today as proud as punch of my budding babies.

When spring comes I have a morning walk through the garden every morning. I can’t help but pull a weed or two, so I have to go scrub my hands before I leave home. I just can’t resist getting my hands in the dirt when spring come.

Today, thought, we are having what our housekeeper, Susie always called the “Easter snap” of cool weather before spring really comes to stay. It’s not terribly cold, but since I live in an old house with high ceilings, it is a bit chilly. I’m having company for supper, so I built a fire. I went out and got some twigs that fell during this week’s storms for starter to go on top of the piece of fat pine that I keep for kindling. I know this fire is a good one because I hear it singing. When it sings, it has really taken hold.

My cousin is visitng from Belgium where he where he lives. I’m having a few family members to come to dinner and sit by the last fire of the season. I’m doing a down home meal. He travels all over the world, so there’s no need to try to impress him with gourmet cuisine. I’m cooking butter beans. I cheated on the pie, too, I heard some of the clerks at Wal-Mart bragging on a caramel apple pie they had in their bakery, and so I snatched one of those right up. I will heat it here and put ice cream on it. I’ll throw it in the oven with my great cheat biscuits. You make them with melted butter, self rising flour and sour cream. They can be dropped into muffin cups with not a bit of rolling and cutting. He will enjoy every bite. He’ll like it because it’s served with love and family by the fireside.