Monthly Archives: July 2020

Summer Fruits

. Family, Seasons . , , , , , , , ,

For me, this home quarantine experience has given me a new perspective and appreciation of God’s beauty around our house. Being the introverted-extrovert that I am, I haven ‘t minded being at home with my family and enjoying the nature that surrounds us. I want to share our fruit-bearing season of the beautiful yet humid Southeast Tennessee, especially here at our home.

We began walking up and down our 800 ft. driveway as a family late in March for family exercise. Until April, the majority of the trees were bare. The Bradford pear trees had bloomed and had some leaves, but that was about it. As the days went by, that “first green”, vibrant, light green donned our mountain. In a week, the whole mountain was “first green”. By my birthday on May 7, it was all “spring-summer” green with that rich, green, chlorophyll shroud. All the different grasses (Bermuda, fescue, crab grass, weeds, clover… LOL) blended together by June to make our summer carpet to match the green drapery of our trees that surrounded us. I also have to mention that our black walnut trees budded and unfurled their leaves the latest we had seen since our first spring here in 2005. The spring of 2020 our two black walnut trees had not budded by May 1, yet they had small leaves adorning their branches by my birthday six days later.

 

God isn’t finished with me yet when it comes to carpentry, gardening, or being a mechanic. He may bless me with the opportunities to learn those things quite soon. Who knows? Maybe never. However, I love watching vegetables and fruits grow. Last week, I was doing my weekly mowing on the tractor ( Oh, once again, our Brother in Christ, Lloyd Thieman, has been our tractor savior this year!!! ) , and I drove under some of the infamous privet hedges that are 10 feet tall. Dangling from the hedges were muscadine vines with muscadines!  Some were even turning purple! While dodging privet branches I yelled only to God , “Muscadines already?” , and I could hear God (Not God’s literal voice , of course… I’m not Pentecostal yet) saying, “Yes, Haven. ALREADY.” This thought gave me the theme of this entry. After I parked the tractor in the barn that evening, I took my phone and snapped photos of our muscadines, pears, and black walnuts.

 

red pears
muscadines
green pears
black walnuts

 

 

As long as the earth will stand, God will give us our seasons. He shared that promise with Noah thousands of years ago. This isn’t an entry about the spiritual seasons of us Christians, but, of course it’s a parallel. Friends and family, stop and enjoy God’s seasonal surroundings. You won’t regret it.

Judy: The Blackberry Picking German Shepherd

. Family, Pets . , , , , , ,
shallow focus photography of berries

Photo by Thierry Fillieul on Pexels.com

 

 

Blackberry picking is a summer ritual for me just as catching lightening bugs, catching June bugs and sometimes trying to fly them on a string, listening to the katydids, and sitting somewhere under shelter while listening to a summer thunderstorm. I was mowing several weeks ago, and I hopped off the tractor to move a garden hose. Near our swimming pool fence where the hose lay were some blackberry bushes. I picked a blackberry, ate it,  and with its taste came 50 years of beautiful blackberry memories: Evenings when the whole family picked blackberries together, homemade blackberry cobblers, and my bud, Judy.

I love dogs, and I cannot remember life without them. My pet dogs are a part of my essence, and all of them hold a special place in my heart. I am not done with living yet, so I cannot say that Judy was .. THE ONE… that ONE CANINE SOUL MATE…. But she comes pretty close. Judy had many talents and gifts. Lord willing, I will expand on some of them in future blog entries, but this entry is dedicated to Judy the German Shepherd and her blackberry picking abilities.

 

Judy_Haven

Judy & Haven: July 1986

 

Have you ever had a dog that could/would pick any berry: strawberry, blackberry, blueberry (kinda high off the ground I reckon), a muscadine, or a grape? Well, my Judy would blackberry pick with me. I have no idea when she started nor do I have any recollection of her watching me. However, my Judy surprised me one summer evening while I was strolling through our yard.  On the edge our yard near a pine grove, there were some blackberry brambles (bushes). In case you are reading from another area of the United States or the world, the OVERWHELMING majority of our blackberry bushes grow on thorny stalks/brambles. As a blackberry grows on its bramble, it begins as green, then turns red, then turns “black” (deep purple). When it is black it is ready to pick and eat. Well, Judy had been walking by my side, and she stopped to watch me inspect and eat some blackberries. When I finished, she took her turn at finding a blackberry to eat. She sniffed, inspected the remaining, unripe, red blackberries, sniffed again, then ever so delicately (remember there are thorns everywhere) nibbled off a ripe blackberry. After she swallowed, she nipped another berry. I laughed, knelt down, and gave my girl a big ‘ol hug. “You stinker! You sure are smart!” , I said… and yes, she was very intelligent. That was all she wanted that evening. She would eat blackberries with me in later years, and it always amazed me.

Friends and family, I love it when you post your comments in response to my blog entries both here and on other social media. Please share the summer antics of a special member of your fur family: Either past or present. We need some heart-warming stories to make us smile this summer of 2020 and post some pics if you can.

blacberry-2020

July 8, 2020: While picking some blackberries for a smoothie, I snapped this pic in memory of Judy.