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

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
Posted in knowledge&learning, local, marriage, nature, seasons, time | 1 Comment »

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
Posted in animals, balance, beauty, birds, God, knowledge&learning, life, local, nature, seasons, time | No Comments »