Rug Lady

Wow! It's cold for the Fourth of July. I was set up at the Farmer's Market yesterday, and had to wear a jacket. The wind blew so hard nobody could set their market tents.

I heard the wind subside overnight, and while it's on the cool side today, there is only a breeze. Now I have to decide whether to mow the lawn, or stack the last of the firewood, or pick the first picking of Black Raspberries. It'll probably be berries.

The Elderberries are nearing the end of their blossom phase. I've been keeping track of Elderberry locations for my wine project. I'm going to need more gallon jugs than I have, or else find suitable substitutions.

Last year, I froze about 20 quarts of E. berries, and was going to make a little bit of wine from my neighbor's E.berries. I wanted to pick them myself, because for me it's kind of a meditation. As it turned out, he picked them, and I couldn't use any of them. My neighbor had probably 40-50 ducks that propagated at will, and wandered the same way. One needed to wear boots to walk their property because duck-doody covered every square inch of the place. When my well-meaning neighbor picked, he gathered a large cardboard box of berries that came from the branches that had bowed down to the ground,--into the duck sh--. They smelled of duck sh-- so bad, there was no berry smell at all. I suppose I could have made a version of Cold Duck. Duck-Dropp wine with its diSTINKtive bouquet.

I love to gather. I gather things for teas, and things that I can sell, (Ginseng.) I have seen so much going on in the fields and hedgerows, and woods while gathering. Your posture, and rhythms, and silhouette are altered to where you are pretty much hanging with whatever is out there. And there's a deep stillness within when you are gathering, ( if you're into it.) When my Dad was an old man, he told me that I was likely concieved while gathering. He and my Mom were gathering Blackberries. The way Dad tells it; he said that he felt someone looking at him, and looked up to see a nude woman just beond the berry patch looking back. My parents used to giggle about picking Blackberries when I was a kid.

Andway, I'm sure the grass is dry enough for me to venture forth, so I'll wish Good Things for all.

Joy