Seasonal Fruit

One of the best things that happened today was my coming home to fresh fruit.

I mean, fresh: as in, hand-picked, today from the yard.

In June we pick and eat blueberries. About the fourth of July, we’re stripping the fig tree of its goods in between setting off fireworks.

Last month, beauty berries (French mulberries) were bursting forth underneath the giant oak tress in the front yard:

But this is by far my favorite month for fresh fruit…

There is one lemon in that basket, which will wind up sliced and in my iced green tea for my morning commutes.

The others are Satsuma oranges, native to my area – a cross between mandarin oranges and tangerines. These babies are seedless, sweet as sugar and are known to peel very easily. Children devour them like candy (even children who refuse to eat their fruits & veggies).

One day, the pineapple cores we planted in by the front porch 2 years ago will yield actual pineapples (they’re 3 feet high now!). My roses are in full bloom, and I’d eat them if I could, they smell so delicious.

Bananas are also starting to get closer to being plucked, but for right now, the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving and Christmas are filled with these beautiful, yummy, succulent Satsumas (see related post from last year). I ought to go on a crash diet of just Satsumas, come to think of it!

Meanwhile, back at one of my fave beach hangouts yesterday…

Tumbling down the sand dune – pure joy – and pure sand saturation. You would not believe how many pounds of sand get lodged in a pair of little boy drawers…

Thanks, God, for life’s little (and big!) delights. For fruit and diversions, for the cost of pants full of sand paling in comparison to the untold joy of rolling in it, and for providing us with a never-ending supply of Your fruit. May our lives be easy to peel, seedless, sweet and dripping-down-to-the elbows-juicy.

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Thanksgiving Red Tape

…pulled into the driveway of the nice neighbor up the road to get some Satsuma oranges (cross between mandarins and tangerines). Funneled $5 in jug and grabbed bag top-middle and used shredder at home to make orange zest to throw into cranberry sauce the second it came off the stove…

Captured this sunset on the commute home, because there was a 2-car accident on the sure-fire alternate route to avoid holiday traffic, and another couple of smash-ups on every other viable route home. God bless the slow-n-steady…I got home safely and savored the colors in the sky in the process:

Came home to this sight…. (friends, study the spud)

Yes, I have a jar of shells (or fifteen) around the house, including on the kitchen counter. I have never, however, had an army guy sticking out of a potato greeting me upon walking in the door. This was a first. I noticed the children parked the army-guy-in-potato near some of my cookbooks (which I rarely use). I believe they were trying to tell me something which I shall analyze tomorrow, probably and unfortunately after the fact. In the meantime, I will take the hint that there may be heavy combat in my kitchen between now and Black Friday.

In other accomplishments today, I:

~Reassured a young child why his mother’s cancelling his home pass for the Thanksgiving weekend due to his not-that-negative-behavior days before (even though he did his level best for a whole day prior) and her perception of inconvenience was justified…have a heart, ma!

~Reassured a set a parents why their child’s insistence that they did not want to go home for Thanksgiving because they can’t stand the fighting between Mom & Dad, was justified…knock it off already, y’all.

~Tried to help a 9 year old understand why he could not go home just for one day for Thanksgiving because his mother preferred to have men with meth over for Thanksgiving instead of complying with Child Services’ request that she attend family therapy so that the child might come home for a home pass…and we wonder why the world is going the way it is?!

~Explained to an 8 year old why Mommy was more interested in preventing domestic violence by going by boyfriend’s wishes to have her all to himself instead of 8 year old coming home even for a few hours on Thanksgiving…put ‘cher big-boy-boxers on, dude. Really.

~Comforted a seven-year-old about why Mommy can’t be with him because she has to work the ‘hood selling her body instead of being with him tomorrow. No comment.

God bless the owner of the bowling alley who offered these children a discount diversion for the day of Thanksgiving, and the owner of the skating rink who opened his business and heart to them the day after Thanksgiving, just cuz.

And the only reason I can’t take them all in myself is because it would be a gosh-darned ethical “conflict of interest,” and besides, my mother with Alzheimer’s is spending the day – and she’s mad as a freshly-uprooted fire ant right now right now because as POA I stand between her and her every dime she wants to give to every unscrupulous charity which hits her up at every opportunity by mail and phone. If only I could bring home the kids and feed them all and let them play on our Wii and pick out their favorite shells and stuff, Grandma would be amply diverted and fulfilled in the giving of her time and energy, and we’d have a big ol’ time.

Somehow I fantasize were HIPAA and privacy laws not such a barrier, everyone would get their physical and emotional needs met and be provided for, just fine thank you very much, the down-home way.

Kind of like the Honor Jug above.

Thanks, God, for the ways You help even when we feel helpless, for the ways You move in the lives of others that we can’t see in our finite glimpses. Thank You for making everything right when things can seem so wrong. Thank You, Lord, for the ways You meet the needs of those who are the neediest in Your eyes, not ours. Thanks, God, for teaching us to give thanks for all things, even those we can’t fathom.
God, thank You for meeting the needs of the dear friends here, too, needs which may be overshadowed by man’s perception and definition of “needs.” Thank You for loving us all as we are in our various stages of need, and for cutting through all the red tape we put between You and us. Thanks for knowing our hearts, even so…

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