Amen. After a long wet spring and a near rain-less hot early summer, despite all the things working against it, yesterday my garden produced its first ripe tomato of the year. It now resides on my kitchen counter, as I mull over which way to eat it. In a salad? On a sandwich? Hmmm, I don't know yet. Maybe I will just slice it on tonight's dinner plates as a side dish for me and the wife. It's not a decision to be made in a cavalier way. Sean is right, it's like a sacred question. How shall I appreciate God's bounty wrapped up in this small red, spherical package, my first tomato of the year? I think I'll ponder it some more, the day is still young.
How very silly!! LoL!!!! Of course he did!! I was hoping for some details like, on a sandwich, part of a salad, in sauce for pasta, oh my goodness, now I'm hungry!
After offering, in full, to my wife, she said, "No, you go ahead and eat it." So I cubed it up and had it for lunch with cottage cheese. My wife....I think she's a keeper.
Sean, I LOVE your love list! I LOVE that you love life. I especially LOVE that you love your wife. Keep loving and sharing. This bitter world needs it. If people would stop the hatred and being offended and be more loving, what a wonderful world this would be. I LOVE you!
I love everything about Sean Dietrich and the love of his life, Jamie. They are such kind, down home, caring and talented folks. Sean, thank you for sharing so much of your life with us, your faithful fans!♥️
And while eating that juicy, home grown tomato, turn off the gloom and doom TV and radio, listen to silence, or neighborhood sounds, or like me, the local woodpecker attacking the eavetroughs. Life is better than the broadcasters and politicians are telling you, and remember, their goal is to make money. The woodpecker sounds infinitely better!
Mine was always "Onward Christian Soldiers". Every Wednesday night church meeting Rev. Alewine would ask what we wanted to sing and I would always ask for it!
I love warm oatmeal on a cold morning. I love SEC football and basketball. I love more people than I can count. I loved having a job working with children for forty years. Along with wonderful people that cared about children. I love reading your columns on real life and people you have come to know. I love knowing that the good people of this country will eventually return it to a kind and the decent place we used to be. Keep reminding us of the wonder of this marvelous place that seems so distant now.
Ooh, Steve, me, too! But I like the steel cut oatmeal way better than the regular. It's not slick, if you know what I mean, but is a bit crunchy and nutty.
If you’re gonna grow tomatoes, grow lettuce leaf basil. The crinkly leaves get tobe about 5-6” long, maybe 4” across, and taste strongly of basil. Get the seeds from rareseeds.com. They’re $3 for about 150-200 seeds. Delivered. While you’re there, for another $3, you can get a pack of spoon tomato seeds. They get to be ~1/4” in diameter and are delicious. I wrap 10-15 of them in a basil leaf and eat it like a taco.
Good thing about spoon tomatoes seems to be that you only have to plant them once. I didn’t plant them this year because volunteers came on their own. Maybe 100 plants, all around my house, but mostly in the pots I used for them last year. Each plant gives a few hundred tomatoes, which grow in clusters of 8-20. Talk about easy!
Let's not forget 'Mater Gravy. Best thing I ever had with a biscuit.
My Dad poked popcicle sticks into the stem ends of tomatoes and froze them. Then, the peel would come off easily and salt and pepper would stick to them. Yum!
Best advice I ever followed: Turn off the tv and cell phone. Live your own life instead of watching someone else's. Find out who you really are, and cherish those you love by really being there.
I fully agree with everything you said today, but when you said “water,” it took me back 30 years when we moved from Fairhope to Texas. I had grown up near the confluence of the Tombigbee and Warrior rivers, then we lived 4 blocks off Mobile Bay for 8 years before my husband’s job sent us to Fort Worth. Even with the man made lakes and generally dry creeks they call rivers here, Texas is dry. Rainfall is scarce, and when it happens, it can be deadly—as it was on July 4th. I miss the gentle rhythm of waves and flowing creeks and rivers.
I’ve heard lovely things about Fairhope! A friend whose husband is a pilot travels worldwide. She was underwhelmed in Paris at Christmas and then happened to be in Fairhope for another Christmas. It was just what she wanted. Since I’ve already been to Paris (it was ok; the chocolate croissants hot out of the oven are my best memory), I want to see Fairhope. And I don’t have to fly!
It is a beautiful place, much lovelier than where we lived for 17 years in North Texas. We now live in San Antonio, and it is lovely as well. The Riverwalk, Fiesta, Spanish Missions (World Heritage sites), wonderful food choices, plus HEB grocery stores!
Why oh Why did you move from Fairhope to Texas??????? I tell everyone I meet or know that Fairhope, ALA. is the closest thing to GOD'S HEAVEN ON EARTH!! SWEETEST LITTLE TOWN EVER!! I SO MISS THEIR CRAFT FAIRS... I now live in Louisiana, & God willing one day I will return to Mobile, Alabama
Putting down my phone. Thank you for reminding me that there are so many awesome people, experiences, things to love. Today is a day of miracles and wonders never cease! Thank you Sean. My day just got better. Be blessed!!
I can't agree more with your take on today's so called church music. A third grader can write better lyrics. The old hymns were sermons in themselves. Who is crazy enough to think that, "Yes Jesus, Yes Jesus, Yes Jesus Yes, repeated ad infinitum, is superior to " Alas And Did My Savior Die ..." All of the churches have switched over and I have quit going. Thanks for pointing this out. Maybe some church somewhere will listen.
I’m practicing what you’re preaching, sweetie. And add some strawberry shortcake with real whipped cream, blueberries, cantaloupe and watermelon. Hugs all!
Amen. After a long wet spring and a near rain-less hot early summer, despite all the things working against it, yesterday my garden produced its first ripe tomato of the year. It now resides on my kitchen counter, as I mull over which way to eat it. In a salad? On a sandwich? Hmmm, I don't know yet. Maybe I will just slice it on tonight's dinner plates as a side dish for me and the wife. It's not a decision to be made in a cavalier way. Sean is right, it's like a sacred question. How shall I appreciate God's bounty wrapped up in this small red, spherical package, my first tomato of the year? I think I'll ponder it some more, the day is still young.
I'd love to know what you decide to do with your tomato....
My guess, Cheryl, would be for him to eat it.
How very silly!! LoL!!!! Of course he did!! I was hoping for some details like, on a sandwich, part of a salad, in sauce for pasta, oh my goodness, now I'm hungry!
Yep, that's me being silly again. ☺️
After offering, in full, to my wife, she said, "No, you go ahead and eat it." So I cubed it up and had it for lunch with cottage cheese. My wife....I think she's a keeper.
A keeper for sure!
Well. At least you're sharing it with your wife. ,👍❤️
Sean, I LOVE your love list! I LOVE that you love life. I especially LOVE that you love your wife. Keep loving and sharing. This bitter world needs it. If people would stop the hatred and being offended and be more loving, what a wonderful world this would be. I LOVE you!
I love everything about Sean Dietrich and the love of his life, Jamie. They are such kind, down home, caring and talented folks. Sean, thank you for sharing so much of your life with us, your faithful fans!♥️
Hey, Pat, Jamie's watching you.
Haha! I love her too🤗
“Count your blessings, name them one by one.
Count your blessings see what God has done. Count your blessings….”
Ty Sean
And while eating that juicy, home grown tomato, turn off the gloom and doom TV and radio, listen to silence, or neighborhood sounds, or like me, the local woodpecker attacking the eavetroughs. Life is better than the broadcasters and politicians are telling you, and remember, their goal is to make money. The woodpecker sounds infinitely better!
Absolutely! As sad as it is, I love "The Old Rugged Cross." It's been my favorite as long as I can remember.
I love to listen to Alan Jackson sing old hymns. This morning I sang along with him. We sang "Blessed Assurance."
Mine was always "Onward Christian Soldiers". Every Wednesday night church meeting Rev. Alewine would ask what we wanted to sing and I would always ask for it!
I love warm oatmeal on a cold morning. I love SEC football and basketball. I love more people than I can count. I loved having a job working with children for forty years. Along with wonderful people that cared about children. I love reading your columns on real life and people you have come to know. I love knowing that the good people of this country will eventually return it to a kind and the decent place we used to be. Keep reminding us of the wonder of this marvelous place that seems so distant now.
Steve, I also like instant grits in the morning with a touch of butter. Nummer nummer in the tummer
Ooh, Steve, me, too! But I like the steel cut oatmeal way better than the regular. It's not slick, if you know what I mean, but is a bit crunchy and nutty.
I may need to try it again. I had a friend that ate it every day for many years. I just never could cook it right......
If all else fails, Steve, it's okay to read directions. 😉
made me laugh.....MY friend would overnight them in a crockpot I think. My ex wife did too.
Yeah, Steve, overnight in the Crock-Pot, you don't have to baby it. On the stove, you have to keep an eye on it.
Also, making it in the crock pot you could probably make a bunch for all week and clean the crock pot once.
Thank God for you, Jamie, the dogs and home grown tomatoes 🙏❤️
Here, here!!
If you’re gonna grow tomatoes, grow lettuce leaf basil. The crinkly leaves get tobe about 5-6” long, maybe 4” across, and taste strongly of basil. Get the seeds from rareseeds.com. They’re $3 for about 150-200 seeds. Delivered. While you’re there, for another $3, you can get a pack of spoon tomato seeds. They get to be ~1/4” in diameter and are delicious. I wrap 10-15 of them in a basil leaf and eat it like a taco.
Good thing about spoon tomatoes seems to be that you only have to plant them once. I didn’t plant them this year because volunteers came on their own. Maybe 100 plants, all around my house, but mostly in the pots I used for them last year. Each plant gives a few hundred tomatoes, which grow in clusters of 8-20. Talk about easy!
You still have to plant the basil each year, tho.
Let's not forget 'Mater Gravy. Best thing I ever had with a biscuit.
My Dad poked popcicle sticks into the stem ends of tomatoes and froze them. Then, the peel would come off easily and salt and pepper would stick to them. Yum!
Best advice I ever followed: Turn off the tv and cell phone. Live your own life instead of watching someone else's. Find out who you really are, and cherish those you love by really being there.
Gotcha on the tomatoes. You didn't mention Romas - great little tomatoes. I grow them every year.
I fully agree with everything you said today, but when you said “water,” it took me back 30 years when we moved from Fairhope to Texas. I had grown up near the confluence of the Tombigbee and Warrior rivers, then we lived 4 blocks off Mobile Bay for 8 years before my husband’s job sent us to Fort Worth. Even with the man made lakes and generally dry creeks they call rivers here, Texas is dry. Rainfall is scarce, and when it happens, it can be deadly—as it was on July 4th. I miss the gentle rhythm of waves and flowing creeks and rivers.
I’ve heard lovely things about Fairhope! A friend whose husband is a pilot travels worldwide. She was underwhelmed in Paris at Christmas and then happened to be in Fairhope for another Christmas. It was just what she wanted. Since I’ve already been to Paris (it was ok; the chocolate croissants hot out of the oven are my best memory), I want to see Fairhope. And I don’t have to fly!
It is a beautiful place, much lovelier than where we lived for 17 years in North Texas. We now live in San Antonio, and it is lovely as well. The Riverwalk, Fiesta, Spanish Missions (World Heritage sites), wonderful food choices, plus HEB grocery stores!
JAN, GO & TAKE YOUR GIRL PALS WITH YOU!!
Go!! & take your girl pals with you!!!
Why oh Why did you move from Fairhope to Texas??????? I tell everyone I meet or know that Fairhope, ALA. is the closest thing to GOD'S HEAVEN ON EARTH!! SWEETEST LITTLE TOWN EVER!! I SO MISS THEIR CRAFT FAIRS... I now live in Louisiana, & God willing one day I will return to Mobile, Alabama
My husband’s job sent us. It was hard to leave, but it turned out okay. I taught at a good school until I retired.
Putting down my phone. Thank you for reminding me that there are so many awesome people, experiences, things to love. Today is a day of miracles and wonders never cease! Thank you Sean. My day just got better. Be blessed!!
Love starting my day with this and I love tomatoes!❤️
Beautiful words my dear friend 🙏
I can't agree more with your take on today's so called church music. A third grader can write better lyrics. The old hymns were sermons in themselves. Who is crazy enough to think that, "Yes Jesus, Yes Jesus, Yes Jesus Yes, repeated ad infinitum, is superior to " Alas And Did My Savior Die ..." All of the churches have switched over and I have quit going. Thanks for pointing this out. Maybe some church somewhere will listen.
I’m practicing what you’re preaching, sweetie. And add some strawberry shortcake with real whipped cream, blueberries, cantaloupe and watermelon. Hugs all!