Blooming Where We Have Been Planted

While Making Plans for the Future

I have recently promised to be a bit more prolific in my writing life, particularly right here, but as they say, life happens. We are a bit past the three month mark of our short-term Memphis adventure. There is one big update here at Camp Cordray, but you will have to enjoy THIS post that I hadn’t quite finished before you can partake of the two-fer with the added surprise update that will roll out in the next one, our anniversary post. I would add that update here, but I am already at word length and will have to shave and save some words to make it work. Jumping back in, here goes.

People have asked what it’s like to go from desert and road life to living for a short time in the Home of the Blues, Soul, and Rock and Roll. The everyday wash, feed, clothe, love, plan, dream, are still there no matter where are feet are, but the adventures have changed. The current adventures involve finding beloved purple hull peas and Conecuh sausage right there in the grocer’s freezer instead of in a day dream or during visits to our many friends scattered across the southeast. We are in the mid-South, afterall, and the food is familiar and divine.

We love to explore the culinary treasures on weekends, but most of the time, good ol’ fashioned Camp Cordray home food is what’s on the menu. Dan’s got the rotisserie oven spinning nearly as often as he would the grill or campfire, and the oven in our apartment is a dream. We were heavy on the local fare early on and learned how quickly we could pack on the pounds in this barbecue and southern food paradise. We slid back to the low and no carb meals during the week so we can still enjoy restaurant meals on the weekend. Yum, we say!! Wowza! We will always remember Memphis for the food.

As mentioned in an earlier post, I have figured out how to have groceries and a wide variety of restaurant meals delivered, quite the luxury, although it sometimes goes awry. I will save those stories for another post. Boy howdy, was I steamed! And just when you didn’t think it could happen again, it happened again. Still, we are eating well and loving the different food choices we have both at home and out and about and I have (mostly) hacked the grocery delivery system.

We live in a neighborhood called Harbor Town, located on a peninsula called Mud Island, sandwiched between the Mississippi River and the Wolf River. While our address IS Memphis, Tennessee, we actually we live along the western fringe of the city, which suits us and makes sense, given our love of western horizons.

We can step outside the apartment complex gate and be strolling along the Great Mississip at Greenbelt Park in a matter of minutes. The views are magnificent! I have some still shots and a smidge of video of sunset on the river that I will share as we roll along. Sunset is a community event every night and something we have really enjoyed. It is rare to walk or drive by and not see tugs and barges chugging up and down the river.

We frequent a little riverside grill located within view of the Hernando de Soto Bridge called Tug’s Casual Grill. A meal at Tug’s is excellent no matter when you arrive. Dan can usually count on smelling his dinner wafting through the air as he exits the van after work, but I am also free to skip the cooking and pull the Tug’s card. Woooo hooo! They haven’t called him Norm yet, but they all recognize our mugs at Tug’s.

We do miss the living in the great outdoors but have of course surrounded ourselves with live herbs and flowering plants, hummingbird feeders, and familiar nature lover creature comforts. I had to chuckle when I saw the art hanging in the dining room. Of course it is trees. We are most at home amongst the trees, and the cacti, of course.

Miss Liberty paces in front of the dryer, waiting for a warm load to burrow in. That is a lifelong joy and delight for the ‘Berty Girl. Some things never change. We all have our own ideas of what creature comforts mean.

I brought home grocery store herb plants when we first landed, before the end of the freeze season here. In the house, out to the patio, back in the house has been their plight, with frequent stops on the dining room table to soak up the rays with climate control. All of the little slips and scraps I was given on our ride here have rooted and become lovely little free plants. Can’t beat that!

The sweet potato is a big trailing vine now, threatening to scale the wooden blinds. I love that growing things circle my computer when I write, basking in the light of the direct eastern sunrise and the crystal disco ball rainbows. The cover photo is their dining room table perch. Perfectly Camp Cordray.

This little guy hitched a ride home in a lantana plant we bought at Home Depot. We let him stay right where he was overnight so he could make a plan. He leapt at least 4 feet from one table to another and snuggled into the lavender plant. I misted him and made sure he had water and let him recover from his last journey. Eventually, Dan carried him off somewhere woodsy to find his mate.

Yep, even though we are “in the city” we still spend a lot of time outdoors, and working to make the indoors seem more like outdoors until we are back on the wind.

Oh, and about that back on the wind thing. Last night brought a long-anticipated severe storm that for us, was mostly a spectacular light show and rumbly thunderboomer but did no damage. I was up watching the radar, as always. Dan and the pups slept through it. Well, Libby shook through it, but not as bad as she has at other times. I had plenty of time to think about the events of the past few days, which have drastically changed our trajectory, or at least the timing, of our next big (road life) adventure. Holy cannoli, Batman! Since I have added words since I nearly exceeded my post length, I shall serve up a cliffhanger. To find out, you must stay tuned. Heeeheeeheee! No, I am not evil. I am a writer. It is what we do.

Bird’s nests and butterflies,

Brenda Cordray

The Desert Rose