Another busy Saturday with an even busier Sunday coming up - maybe. The Sunday School kids couldn't make it for the Panther Rock walk last week, so maybe they'll want to go this week. It's a good thing we didn't go last week because we had a gully washer about 3 p.m. We'd have been way down the creek by then and would have gotten WET. Of course the kids wouldn't have cared. They would have already jumped in the creek by then anyway. But somehow getting rained on is different than getting wet in a creek or pool. Of course when I was a little girl we went out and played in the rain when there was no thunder and lightning. We had great fun getting soaked and running through puddles. It was the closest we ever came to playing in a sprinkler.
So we may do the walk again. Then my son and family are coming out to try to get one more gallon of blackberries for some more jam. He got back from his business trip to China on Wednesday. Just in time. His kids were really missing him. The little two-year-old kept saying she'd "lost" her daddy. Anyway to let him know he's back on home ground here in Kentucky, I'll let him climb into all the worst brambles this time to find those biggest berries, because of course, that's where all the best ones are. School starts around here in about ten days so the grandkids are going to spend the night. So now you see why I'm blogging tonight. We'll be busy tomorrow night. Those little rascals like to go to bed late and get up early when they're at "Grammy Camp."
I didn't have a grandmother who spoiled me rotten when I was a little girl, but I did have an aunt who stepped in to that spot. We spent the night with her every Friday and she loved us without boundaries. She cooked us hotdogs (a rare treat for us when I was a kid) and bought us soft drinks. Sometimes she let us make Brown Cows (ice cream and coke). I didn't really like it, but it was fun to make. She had an old Underwood typewriter she let us type on. I typed "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog" a zillion times. Perhaps that was the beginning of me thinking I could be a writer. I still miss Bond and she's been gone now for forty years. I don't suppose we ever really stop missing the ones we love. We carry them in our heart and the love they had for us somehow stays with us and makes us stronger.
You'll be happy to know I got my copies of The Outsider Friday. The publishers got them out to me ASAP after I called to let them know they hadn't arrived. I knew they hadn't really lost my address. ;o) So, Donna and Jane, the books you won in my book give-away are in the mail to you. I've been giving books away right and left to family. At this rate, I'll have to order more next week. But that's okay.
It's always fun getting a new book. This is my eighteenth (I think) and it was just as exciting as the second one. Note, I didn't say the first one. Holding that very first published book in your hands is extra special. Of course it was so long between books before The Scent of Lilacs was published that getting that book was about the same as seeing the first one back in 1978. There had been black months in those unpublished years when I wasn't sure I'd ever see another of my books in print. And then I decided to write about a preacher and his daughter and discovered a whole new group of readers. A great group of readers. I'm glad the Lord put Jocie's story into my head. I just wish I had dived into the inspirational market a few years earlier than I did. But you know, I can't go back and do over yesterday. I just have today with hope for tomorrow.
I wish you a great today and an even better tomorrow. If you get The Outsider and read it, let me know what you think. Write me a review on Amazon if you take a notion. I've already received one e-mail from a lady who has already read The Outsider. And liked it, thank goodness. Talk to you Wednesday with some inspirational quotes this week. Quotes to keep you hanging in there and working toward your dream.
Showing posts with label Blackberry picking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Blackberry picking. Show all posts
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Picking Blackberries and Other Berry Picking Stories
It's Saturday night and I'm bushed. I usually don't sign on to let you know what's going on in my life out here on the farm until Sunday, but tomorrow promises to be one of those days when there's no time for blog reflections. The guys are singing at the Mercer County Fair in Harrodsburg tomorrow night, so I'm hoping to go hear them. And of course I'll be going to church in the morning and then if it doesn't look stormy my Sunday School kids are supposed to come home with me to take our once or twice a year walk to Panther Rock. They have a blast playing in the creek and crawling over the rocks. This is our third Sunday to try it. Both the other Sundays the weathermen have predicted storms. Both Sundays it was cloudy till after church and then after we'd postponed the adventure, the sun came out and the afternoons turned out to be great. Probably will rain on us whenever we do get down on the creek. Now that was definitely a glass half empty comment, wasn't it? I'll have to go back and read my quotes on optimism again.
The reason I'm so bushed is it's hot here today. In the nineties, and I decided - in the hottest part of the day - that I'd better pick the beans in the garden before they grew too big. I was just finishing up when my daughter-in-law (not the one expecting twins, the other one) brought the kids out to go blackberry picking. She wanted to get enough berries to make jam. I took them to the easy patches, but I think the deer have been beating us to the berries. They must like the easy patches too. And then the kids wanted to eat all they picked. The littlest one who is two kept saying she wanted to pick out of my bucket. We finally found almost a gallon, but they didn't have time to go to the patch in the pasture field. So after they left, I decided I was already hot and sweaty and itchy and scratched up so I might as well get more so. I went back. I must have been too hot to think straight.
Any of you ever pick blackberries out in the field where the vines grow over your head and there are mysterious paths tunneling through the bushes? If so, you know that's where the biggest and best blackberries grow. But you also know there could be snakes under there or even crawling along the top of the briars. The stickers don't seem to bother them much. I've decided I'm a Kamikaze blackberry picker. Show me a big plump berry and I'll mash down briars, stick my hand through prickly vines, and do whatever it takes to go after that berry. Then when I finally stretch as far as I can and have my fingers on that delicious berry, half the time I drop it. Or it's too ripe and the June bugs have already beat me to it. All that pain for naught. I haven't really figured out yet why I do it. I could just stay away from those patches and be oblivious to all those berries going to waste, but I go out hunting them. I must like picking berries. You know, finding my food out in the wild, beating the deer and birds to them, challenging the snakes.
Darrell told me he saw that someone was selling wild blackberries for $8 a quart. That sounds like a lot, but I wouldn't pick them for $8. Not for anybody else. We have bosenberries in our backyard. The vines aren't doing good this year, but I've picked a lot of bosenberries in years past and those briars are way worse than blackberries. They lay in wait for you and grab you even when you think you're way out of reach. Don't ask me how. I think they're possessed. Anyway I tell people I only pick those berries for people I love. A lot.
Going berry picking to make jam made me think of the book I finished a few weeks ago. Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen. I talked about sitting by the author, Susan Gregg Gilmore at the Blue Grass Book Festival in one of my May blogs and how the title pulled people in. Her books practically hopped up into their hands, and most of them didn't put it back down. I finally had time to read the copy that hopped up into my hands. The story is just as good as the title. It's about the daughter of a preacher (Yeah, I know. Just like mine.) and who lives in a small town (again just like mine) and can't wait to leave the small town and go out into the big world. (Not like Jocie in mine. Jocie loves Hollyhill. It'll be hard for her when she has to leave.) Susan's heroine, Catherine Grace, does leave town as soon as she reaches 18, but she finds out that maybe she left behind too much of her heart. But the reason my berry picking brought the story to mind is that in the book, she and her sister pick strawberries and sell strawberry jam to make money for their big escape from their small town. See where berry picking can take you. Check out Susan's book on her website, www.susangregggilmore.com. This is her first novel but she put in her years learning to write as a newspaper reporter. She learned well. Her book is even on the high school reading list for the old high school she attended. How neat is that! I'd just be happy if all my old high school buddies wanted to read my books. And I'm lucky enough that some of them do.
I've gone ahead and scheduled the book launch for The Outsider at Corinth Bookstore in Frankfort, Kentucky for August 1. I just know it's going to make those twins decide to come early, but we're taking a chance. I'm looking forward to having my book out and my daughter-in-law is looking forward to having those twins out where somebody else can carry them around for a while. LOL Hope if you're in the area you'll come out to my book launch. It's at 7 p.m. Friday night, August 1. I'll be talking about my new book, answering questions and signing copies of the book for anyone who wants to take one home. Then the next day I'll be at Paul Sawyier Library in Frankfort, KY at A Gathering of Authors. I'll have all my recent books available there. Come by and see me if you're in the area.
Hope you have a great week. And get out there and pick some blackberries. It's probably good for the Southern soul. If you put them in a cobbler they taste good for sure.
The reason I'm so bushed is it's hot here today. In the nineties, and I decided - in the hottest part of the day - that I'd better pick the beans in the garden before they grew too big. I was just finishing up when my daughter-in-law (not the one expecting twins, the other one) brought the kids out to go blackberry picking. She wanted to get enough berries to make jam. I took them to the easy patches, but I think the deer have been beating us to the berries. They must like the easy patches too. And then the kids wanted to eat all they picked. The littlest one who is two kept saying she wanted to pick out of my bucket. We finally found almost a gallon, but they didn't have time to go to the patch in the pasture field. So after they left, I decided I was already hot and sweaty and itchy and scratched up so I might as well get more so. I went back. I must have been too hot to think straight.
Any of you ever pick blackberries out in the field where the vines grow over your head and there are mysterious paths tunneling through the bushes? If so, you know that's where the biggest and best blackberries grow. But you also know there could be snakes under there or even crawling along the top of the briars. The stickers don't seem to bother them much. I've decided I'm a Kamikaze blackberry picker. Show me a big plump berry and I'll mash down briars, stick my hand through prickly vines, and do whatever it takes to go after that berry. Then when I finally stretch as far as I can and have my fingers on that delicious berry, half the time I drop it. Or it's too ripe and the June bugs have already beat me to it. All that pain for naught. I haven't really figured out yet why I do it. I could just stay away from those patches and be oblivious to all those berries going to waste, but I go out hunting them. I must like picking berries. You know, finding my food out in the wild, beating the deer and birds to them, challenging the snakes.
Darrell told me he saw that someone was selling wild blackberries for $8 a quart. That sounds like a lot, but I wouldn't pick them for $8. Not for anybody else. We have bosenberries in our backyard. The vines aren't doing good this year, but I've picked a lot of bosenberries in years past and those briars are way worse than blackberries. They lay in wait for you and grab you even when you think you're way out of reach. Don't ask me how. I think they're possessed. Anyway I tell people I only pick those berries for people I love. A lot.
Going berry picking to make jam made me think of the book I finished a few weeks ago. Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen. I talked about sitting by the author, Susan Gregg Gilmore at the Blue Grass Book Festival in one of my May blogs and how the title pulled people in. Her books practically hopped up into their hands, and most of them didn't put it back down. I finally had time to read the copy that hopped up into my hands. The story is just as good as the title. It's about the daughter of a preacher (Yeah, I know. Just like mine.) and who lives in a small town (again just like mine) and can't wait to leave the small town and go out into the big world. (Not like Jocie in mine. Jocie loves Hollyhill. It'll be hard for her when she has to leave.) Susan's heroine, Catherine Grace, does leave town as soon as she reaches 18, but she finds out that maybe she left behind too much of her heart. But the reason my berry picking brought the story to mind is that in the book, she and her sister pick strawberries and sell strawberry jam to make money for their big escape from their small town. See where berry picking can take you. Check out Susan's book on her website, www.susangregggilmore.com. This is her first novel but she put in her years learning to write as a newspaper reporter. She learned well. Her book is even on the high school reading list for the old high school she attended. How neat is that! I'd just be happy if all my old high school buddies wanted to read my books. And I'm lucky enough that some of them do.
I've gone ahead and scheduled the book launch for The Outsider at Corinth Bookstore in Frankfort, Kentucky for August 1. I just know it's going to make those twins decide to come early, but we're taking a chance. I'm looking forward to having my book out and my daughter-in-law is looking forward to having those twins out where somebody else can carry them around for a while. LOL Hope if you're in the area you'll come out to my book launch. It's at 7 p.m. Friday night, August 1. I'll be talking about my new book, answering questions and signing copies of the book for anyone who wants to take one home. Then the next day I'll be at Paul Sawyier Library in Frankfort, KY at A Gathering of Authors. I'll have all my recent books available there. Come by and see me if you're in the area.
Hope you have a great week. And get out there and pick some blackberries. It's probably good for the Southern soul. If you put them in a cobbler they taste good for sure.
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