Siggy's Blurbs: Siggy's Edge of Country …

I went deep into the woods for blackberries, fighting briars every step and finally gave up.  There just weren’t enough ripe berries to make it worthwhile.  I had discovered this patch at least a year ago.  It is difficult to get to.  I am afraid I might miss this crop.  We are going away in less than a week.  I will check the blackberry patches once more just before we go.  I gobbled up the few berries I picked.  I might not get that pie I was hoping my wife would make.  Oh well.

Tags: blackberries, blackberry patch, blackberry pie, briars, ripe berries, wife, woods
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It must be the height of the wild raspberry season.  I just picked another bowlful.  I won’t pick any more.  I will let other creatures (and others) pick the remainder.  Lynelle all ready baked two pies–one we froze.  They are a real treat and the bushes are walking distance.  Maybe my other will bake another pie and we will give this one away.  The season is so short.  The wild blackberry season is next–a few more weeks.  During one season near the end I discovered a patch deep in the woods hard to get to.  There are so many briars.  I will have all the blackberries I want if I fight my way through all the thorns.  Something else to look forward to–my wife’s blackberry pies.  Another treat.  Soon to come.

Tags: berry season, blackberries, blackberry pie, briars, deep woods, dessert, food, my wife, picking wild berries, pies, raspberry pie, season, thorns, wild blackberry, wild raspberry, woods
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I am watching the berries.  Within a short walking distance of our house is patches of blackberries and red raspberries.  I surveyed the progress of the berries today.  The red raspberries are still a few weeks off, then a little later there are the blackberries.  I will keep checking them periodically.  There are frozen crusts in the freezer waiting for the berries to be picked.  My wife makes great berry pie and they get consumed by both of us right away.  Occasionally we even give one away.  I will keep checking the berry patches.  I don’t want to miss my wife’s pies.  They are just too good.

Tags: berries, berry patch, berry pie, blackberries, my wife, pick berries, pie crusts, red raspberries, wild berries
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I have always lived at the edge of country.  Of course, some people are more divorced from it if they are surrounded by concrete but it is always there you just have to look a little harder.

Growing up I watched my mother plant vegetables and flowers and other things.  We had a mulberry and fig and apricot tree and some of the biggest blackberries I have ever seen.

It was a small plot of land but she tilled it well.  We had fresh string beans and tomatoes.  She loved roses.  The garden was a place she could disappear in.  And she often did for hours.

We lived in a bustling little city but that garden we had was an introduction to many things.  I learned to love deep red stemmed roses.

On weekends my father brought us into the country, mountains and shore but most of my life I lived in the edge of country.  I learned to appreciate what came my way.

Today I still love birds.  I have several bird feeders that I can view from our large living room windows and watch a steady parade of chickadees and titmouse and woodpeckers just to name a few.

It all started in Mom’s garden and the weekend trips we took as a family.  I learned to love the mountains and trees and lakes and and so many other things.

Tags: apricot tree, bird feeding, bird-feeders, bird-watching, birds, blackberries, chickadees, country, edge of country, fig tree, flowers, fruit trees, garden, lakes, Mom's garden, mountains, mulberry tree, my father, my mother, nature, plant vegetables, red roses, roses, shore, string beans, titmouse, tomatoes, trees, woodpeckers
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Spring was less than five weeks away.  I started my countdown.  It was close enough to it.  I do this every year.  It is a little game I play.  I am waiting for the warmer weather.  The spring.  The blackberries and raspberries I pick.  My annual camping trip I take in May with my buddy.  The explosion of life.  The first flowers — daffodils.  Everything.  Every year I have a countdown.  The winter that passes me and I endure just makes spring that much sweeter.  Right now there is quite a bit of snow on the ground.  I know in less than six weeks it will be all gone and the daily temperatures will gradually rise.  My countdown is my anticipation of spring and what follows.

Tags: annual countdown to Spring, anticipate Spring, beauty, blackberries, camping trip, daffodils, daily temperatures, explosion of life in spring, flowers, life, May, my buddy, nature, raspberries, seasons, snow, snow on the ground, spring, warm weather, winter
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It is no accident that all of us (my two sisters and I) garden.  It all started in my mother’s garden.  It was such a small garden but what an “oasis”.  She had all kinds of beautiful flowers.  I never forgot those deep red roses she had.

That does not even include our fig tree (I mourn its death), the biggest blackberries I have ever seen and the white grape vine she could not kill and finally gave up.

Even after decades I can almost visualize that garden.  Everything started there.  That does not even include the vegetables she raised.  Years later I became a produce clerk.

My appreciation of beauty started in that garden.  She introduced me to God there.  This is such a short essay.  I can not even begin to state the impact of her garden had on on my life even long after she moved from there (I must say reluctantly).

She has been dead seven years and it has been decades since I left that garden but its impact can still be felt today.

I still love looking at flowers and this year I planted eight tomato plants in pots.  I used to think that New Jersey had the best tomatoes in the whole world.  (Yes, I forgot to mention we also had tomatoes in that garden.)

There is so much I have to thank Mom for the garden she tended so carefully and lovingly.  This is such an incomplete list but I have to start somewhere.  Thank you Mom, for introducing me to flowers (and figs and so many other things).  Thank you, Mom, and may you rest in peace.

Tags: beauty, blackberries, fig tree, flowers, garden, gardener, gardening, God, Mom, mother, my mother's garden, New Jersey, oasis, produce clerk, red roses, rest in peace, thank Mom, thank-you, tomatoes, vegetables, white grape vine
Posted in beauty, death, flowers, God, knowledge&learning, life, love, nature, relationships, seasons, time, wisdom | 2 Comments »

I get so absorbed in the beginning of the day I simply do not notice the birds coming to my feeders.  In the first few hours I am waking up.  I really do not know what happens to me the first hours of the morning.

I am very focused in the beginning and can’t relax.  I make my daily trip to the post office, spray their fern, check my box.  There are always the pets I have to take care of:  we have a menagerie–eight cats and four dogs.  The dogs are always eager to go out and do their thing in the yard and they are none too shy about telling me.

At some point, my concentration switches.  I have done the most pressing tasks and can relax a bit.

I did notice some others things earlier:  I forgot that in the middle of the woods someone once planted a clump of daffodils.  I noticed that they were white and also a larger variety unlike the others in our yard.

I also noted that the blackberry and raspberry bushes had new growth (I can not tell them apart this time of the year).  I was thrilled to notice that.  In June and July I will be picking raspberries and blackberries respectively.  I can’t wait.  The only downside, I attract ticks picking berries and they gross me out when I discover one on me.  I just want to get rid of them as quickly as possible.  My wife always wants to gently release them in our yard.

I still remember once last summer discovering seven ticks on me after one berry picking expedition and frantically shook them off of me.  This year I plan to put repellent on me and expose as little skin as I can when I pick the berries.

My wife made several pies last year and I can’t wait to taste another one.  I absolutely love blackberry and raspberry pies.  Last year at the end of the season I accidentally discovered a gigantic patch of blackberries I did not know was there.  I was trying to reach some berries and had gone further into the woods than I had ever gone and there it was.  I will have to fight my way through a wall of briers but I will have more blackberries than I can ever pick.  This time I will freeze some and give away more pies.  Of course my wife will have to bake them.

To get back to the birds, who I do not see right away when I get up, sometimes I am not really here and I am in some different place and at some different time.  It might take a few hours to settle down in the present and do nothing for awhile.  Then I will notice the birds who come in a steady stream all day.  I just have to slow down.  And do nothing.  For awhile.

Tags: berry bushes, bird-feeders, bird-watching, birds, blackberries, blackberry pie, cats, daffodils, deer-tick, dogs, eight cats, flowers, four dogs, my wife, pets, pies, plants, post office, raspberries, raspberry pie, ticks, woods
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Spring is now four weeks minus one day away.  Now it is cold and snow still lingers on the ground.  Before we know it the first daffodils and primrose will come up and then the warm weather will start.  This cold will be a distant memory.  I am looking forward to picking the raspberries on my property and then my blackberries in July.  And before we know it autumn will come again and the cycle will start all over again.  Time seems to have two cycles at the same time.  One turns very slowly and the others speeds all the time.  Time is a vapor as the Bible says.

Tags: autumn, Bible, blackberries, cold, cycle of time, daffodils, God, July, pick raspberries, primrose, seasons, snow on the ground, spring, time, time is a vapor, time seems to have two cycles, warm weather, wisdom
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