A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood

                                                         Ladies Love Country Boys, Trace Atkins


Yesterday, was breathtakingly beautiful... balmy temps, sunshine, blue skies and it happened to also be Friday-- what a great combo, is that?
I had to cruise up to Murphys to the post office to pick up Jeff's new cell phone which had arrived and was waiting for me. Along the way between San Andreas and Angels Camp I took some pics:

Everything was bathed in muted shades of green; the hillsides, trees, shrubbery, wild grass. Spring in the Mother Lode-- gorgeous.
After picking up our mail I headed back to Angels to do some weekend grocery shopping at Save Mart. I haven't been in Save Mart since my Christmas Eve shopping adventure with Aims-- when she selected a lame and somewhat challenged grocery cart that had serious mobility issues (something I could relate to).
I love Save Mart but have not been able to shop there and walk the next day. I decided to give it another chance... what is the Hillary Clinton line? Repeating the same thing over and over and expecting it to change is a form of insanity? Well, not the same words but the essence of the message is the same.
Walking through Save Mart with a cooperate grocery cart I could easily understand why Europe and the Middle East think we're spoiled Americans. Walking down aisle after aisle of heavily laiden shelf assortments and food choices-- seems like decadent waste. How many choices do we really need? Hundreds of thousands of cans, pre-packaged bags, cardboard/boxed food and beverage items. It's completely mind-boggling. How do we ever arrive at a decision as we cross off items on our grocery lists?
Arriving home, after lugging in the grocery bags and placing items away on kitchen shelfs and in the fridge I  got dinner underway. Crockpot-style. I seasoned a thick piece of roast steak, placed it in the crockpot, added garlic, mushrooms and wine, placed the lid back on and let it slowly simmer the afternoon away.
I was absolutely starving by this time and decided to serve up lunch. Deep fried chicken legs w/cottage cheese, sliced strawberries and blueberries. I placed 2 on the plate for pics but only ate one. Really.

The rest of the afternoon was spent hanging with the indoor gang and reading The House I loved. A wonderfully well written novel by French author Tatiana De Rosnay. I've just finished A Widow's Story, a memoir, by Joyce Carol Oates. As you would expect it was a heavy story, well written but you could feel the heavy meloncholy behind the words. I much preferred Joan Didion's, A Year Of Magical Thinking.

Aims called and we had a light hearted, fun conversation as she wandered through her Copper market on her way home from a day of interning at a Sonora Vet-- she loves these days when she gets hand-on training. Next Friday she's administering anesthesia to pets having surgery. 

I was serving up dinner when Jeff arrived home: The steak had cooked itself into a beyond delious tasting piece of roast that melted in your mouth. The green salad was finished and I was tossing the boiled potatoes in butter, fresh lemon w/ dried rosemary and garlic seasonings. After dinner we had Mudslides while we caught up with one another and later still sugar cookies. We spent the evening reading. A wonderfully cozy end to a lovely day.