Raspberries

Anyone who knows me well knows I don't like raspberries.  It isn't the little seeds, it's the taste or tang or something about them that I don't really like.  Oh, I can be polite and eat a little bowl of them when they're our breakfast fruit at The Clearing but they're not close to my fave.  Durwood loves raspberries.  Loves. Them.  DS planted some along the privacy fence years back, he had to leave them when he moved out and reserves the right to come and pick a few  (he should probably reclaim some when they get their backyard redone next spring).  We, well, I keep them well-watered through the summer (Durwood reminds me) and they make berries like they're going out of style.  No one was able to pick while I was gone so yesterday in the late afternoon I grabbed a good size bowl and went out to do the deed.  There were a lot, with more to come soon.  Today's Photo a Day theme is "in my fridge" so here's a snap of the berries.  Aren't they pretty?  I wish I liked them better; I'm sure Durwood is just as happy to "have" to eat them all.  (especially since I've suddenly come to like his homemade tomato soup so now he has to share, poor thing.  he's ordered another half-bushel of tomatoes to pick up today since he's "only" put up 42 pints so far since we've been home from Yellowstone, I carried up quart jars for these next batches.)  The newest feature up at The Clearing is a labyrinth made by this summer's intern, Nate.  It's tucked into a grove of cedars in the SW corner of the homestead meadow over where the original house stood.  It's made of beach stones that are pale pink and rounded and so pretty there, with angular dark gray rocks as the compass points.  In the center is a Scandinavian (Nordic? Celtic? I forget) bench set off center.  Thumbtacked to a tree near a chair is a description of the idea of the labyrinth.  cda and I walked it one afternoon and it's lovely.  I should have gone every day to shed layers of tension and stress but I feel even that one visit as a small quiet place in my heart.  I looked at the photo I took of the labyrinth and it reminded me of the dinosaur skeletons we saw in the Dickinson Dinosaur Museum.  Kind of creepy but very cool, both of them.  Durwood and I had so much fun going through museums and exhibits on our vacation that I proposed we keep it up around here.  I heard a commercial that the Paine Art Center in Oshkosh has an exhibit of Ansel Adams' photos through October and although Durwood's not an art guy he's agreed to go since he is a photographer.  He found an ad in AAA magazine that the History Museum at the Castle in Appleton will be having the only Midwestern showing of models of Leonardo da Vinci's machines starting next weekend and into the winter.  We're going.  This is a good idea.  We've never seen the submarine at the Manitowoc Maritime Museum or the airplanes at the EAA Museum in Oshkosh.  Then there's always the Neville here in town and DD suggested the Peshtigo Fire Museum.  We're going to be so smart!  There have to be more small local museums we can explore this winter.  I'm liking this idea, even if it was mine, I'm liking it a lot.  I'll give reports, never fear.  Pictures too.  I have to say that I was thrilled (thrilled, do you hear?) to finally talk to DD after missing out last weekend because I was gone.  I miss my girl and wish we lived closer or were richer so we could bomb on down there to see them.  One of these days.  Hey, maybe we should Skype.  Do any of you do that?

September 17--Jan van de Cappelle, A State Yacht and Other Craft in Calm Water.  The dip and drip of oars woke Dale.  He had fallen asleep sprawled over the table in the cabin and his neck was cricked.  He massaged the muscles and still had to shove his head upright with his hand.  He stifled a groan when the sound came again, closer this time.  The boat shuddered as something scraped along the starboard side near the waterline.  He slid his hand along the shelf at the end of the galley and came up with a nice, heavy wrench in his hand.  He didn't carry a gun on board, hadn't ever needed one, but now he wasn't so sure.  Were there pirates in the Great Lakes?  He tensed as he heard the bump of a boat on his and then the shift as someone climbed over the gunwale.

Well, that was unexpected.  Time to get showered and dressed for work.  Evidently no one's going to make me breakfast and then ring the bell so I guess I'm on my own for that too.  *sigh* This reentry into the real world is a pain in the keester, I'm telling you.  It's cloudy and cool today too, so I guess it's time to trot out the long jeans.  Long pants *groan* I'm not ready for long pants.  I lead such a hard life, let me tell you.
--Barbara Sue