A Gift for You - A Flower and A Poem

 

 

Definitely a spring picture, but the flowering cherry trees along the Willamette River here in Portland most relate to the dreams of picking cherries. Picking cherries brings back so many memories of my childhood and picking on my grandpa's ranch. My cousins and I would pick and then dare each other to swing the bucket over our heads to see if we could keep all the cherries in the bucket. Sometimes we succeeded and sometimes cherries rained down on our heads.

Picking Cherries

I was barely tall enough
to heave the towering ladder up
careful not to bruise the bark
or break a branch
wrestling the three-legged beast
in a ponderous waddle
to the next abundance.

Then a heady climb
to clasp and pluck
each clutch of stems
fondling fat globules
soft rubies gently dropped
into my bulging bucket.

Sweating in the summer sun
I was too young to know
that the ladder rungs reached all the way to heaven
and the crimson trickle from my lips
was God’s own blood.

~Patrick Traveler

 

 

Welcome, dear friends, to the sultry month of August.

August always brings fresh produce from the garden

and farm stands full of ripe deliciousness.

The tomatoes are beginning to ripen now in my own garden and I love finding a juicy box of fresh peaches at the market. Our blueberries are just about to ripen and will be picked for my breakfast yogurt. Marionberries are now safely tucked in my freezer for a winter pie and soon apples will be there too.