Firsts

[akirlu]

First wild-picked blackberries of the season, collected in the verges around Duvall Park yesterday. Sour as heck, some of them, but better flavor than storebought. Much. There weren't quite enough to do anything with, so I ate them. But when I get another batch, I'm thinking I may try futzing around with the Sunset Magazine quick jam recipes. Blackberry-ginger-apricot sounds interesting to me.

Desk! We've struck desk, Corky! I put away a bunch of beads yesterday, and organized some more, and for just a few glorious minutes while I had the various bead-bins stacked precariously on a chair so I could wet-wipe all the dust off, you could actually see the entire surface of my desk from end to end, simultaneously. First time this calendar year, I'll wager.

And autumn. It's usually August before I get that first hint that the seasons are shifting. But this morning when I took Sarah out for her first walk, the wind was up, and cold, and out of a northerly quearter, and the cloud-filtered sunlight seemed shifted, and that thing in my head that always knows said, Fall is coming. There will be lots of summer left, I think, but the first scent of fall has come.

Comments

[auntysocial.livejournal.com]

Wild blackberries! funny how expensive blackberries are in the store when they're weeds is some people's books. They always need sweetening for me.

haven't seen the srurface of my desk in many months.

The only hint of autumn I'm getting is a couple of ill-timed clothing catalogs.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Wild blackberries! funny how expensive blackberries are in the store when they're weeds is some people's books.

Yep, so true. On the same drive that I picked those first berries on we passed at least one sign advertising "We root out blackberries so they don't come back," which you see quite a bit up here. And while I do in fact like being able to pick wild blackberries in the ditches and verges and along walking trails, there is a certain something to the "it's a weed" perspective. The Himalayan blackberry is an invasive exotic in these parts, and it grows so densely and so impassably that it tends to crowd out and choke native species in the woodlands. It's just that, unlike some invasive plants, it does have an upside if you're of a berry-pickin' inclination. Unlike, say, kudzu which it is thankfully too cold for here.

I picked blackberries for Paul's brekky this morning!

[u-must-b-joking.livejournal.com]

outta the alley...after the rain they plumped up wonderfully.

Stolen, so stolen is the "We've struck desk, Corky". When I clean my desk at work my coworkers panic and think I'm looking for another job.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

The Blackberry Gelato that Pagliacci's is offering right now is downright delicious. According to the Voice of Pagiacci ("We'll be delighted to help you in just a few widely spaced moments"), it was made fresh yesterday morning. (Or maybe it's made fresh every morning, I dunno.)

A Fall-ish day, with a terrific cloudburst. The neighborhood smelled wonderful after that.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Mmmm. Blackberry gelato. What a fabulous idea.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Their seasonal pizza right now is the Salmon Primo, which is muy primo.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Huh. His nibs the salmon slut would no doubt be interested in that. I guess I should try one of these actual full-sized Pagliaccis one of these days, instead of just the tiny-but-perfectly-formed one at the Hub.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Not sure that it's available in your neck of the woods, but we get Pagliacci's delivered to our door. Frequently. There's a sit-down restaurant on the Ave, I think, but I believe they're mostly a delivery business. (And yeah, his nibs would approve of the Salmon Primo, unless I'm mistaken.)

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I don't think there's a Pagliacci very near us, but I think there's one over in the Overlake Memorial Gridlock Zone, which heck, might even technically qualify as Redmond. Or I think there's a more sit-down-ish Pagliacci on 10th just uphill from the magical Roanoke exit. But our usual delivery pizza is Jet City -- sadly, they do not have blackberry gelato.

[samildanach.livejournal.com]

I prefer to mark the seasons with their midpoints at the solar festivals. By that reckoning, we're at summer's end.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Yes, I think that's why I tend to find August bittersweet. It's still warm, but the sunlight is already going...