It’s Summer!
Slipping under the black netting nailed to a wooden frame that protects my blueberry plants from birds, I picked berries for the first time this year. It was dusk and a firefly was in there with me. A slight sultry breeze offered a momentary break from the day’s oppressive heat. As I strained my eyes to see and reached for the ripest and bluest ones, I noticed that my arms were tired from swimming earlier that day.
Even though I know it’s an illusion that pool water is Caribbean blue, every year when I take my first plunge, I’m transformed into a butterfly surfing the waves in a tropical paradise. And every year when I pick my first blueberries, I remember one summer day 15 years ago. We were a handful of women skinny dipping in a neighbor’s private pond, when our hostess appeared from the house bearing two freshly baked blueberry pies. She set them on the pond’s bank with a spoon for each one. Dripping wet and taking turns with the passed around spoons, we ate to our heart’s content.
Will I have enough blueberries this year to make my son Josh’s traditional birthday pie? I wondered as I continued picking.
In the hush of the evening, plump blueberries plunked into my empty tub like exclamation points. “It’s summer! It’s summer! It’s summer!” they seemed to say.
June 24th, 2006 9:28 am
and summer it is. lovely words, and an invitations to pleasant memories.
Michele sent me.
June 24th, 2006 11:41 am
I want some blueberry pancakes!
June 24th, 2006 12:10 pm
My son Josh is actually here from Asheville today. He’s watching the World Cup (and eating blueberries)… in town for a Bachelor’s Party for my youngest son, Dylan…who is getting married in 2 weeks!
I made Josh breakfast, but it wasn’t pancakes.
June 24th, 2006 12:17 pm
What a great post and I loved the part about the “girls” time, which even included blueberry pie.
I envy you all those blueberries. I don’t think they’d grow down here with our climate, so I’ll dream about yours.
June 24th, 2006 12:23 pm
My garden is not exactly taking off this year. I don’t get it. But the grape vines I planted last year that I thought shriveled up seem to be coming back. Great berries!
June 24th, 2006 12:25 pm
..And I believe Cezanne once painted bathers eating blueberry pie from buckets.
June 24th, 2006 1:32 pm
Great post – I’m loving strawberries at the moment. Nothing beats a british strawberry.
Will come again…
June 24th, 2006 1:54 pm
I’m so jealous!!! Our blueberry bush was just dug up yesterday.:( Something got it, or the soil wasn’t right, but it died. I’m planning on taking the kids to go blueberry picking soon though! Mmmmmmm…blueberry pie!!! We eat frozen blueberries all Summer!
June 24th, 2006 2:51 pm
Hi.
You left a comment at my joint this morning. I think you meant for it to go elsewhere. Or else I…uh…I…I…
“Hot dang! Great visual! Mine came with sound effects.”
Anyway, always glad when you stopped by.
And by the way, My First Wife and I had fresh blueberries all over pancakes this morning.
June 24th, 2006 2:57 pm
I love blueberries and I have them on my cereal or waffles every morning. But I have to pay through the nose for mine – and you get yours free, right?
June 24th, 2006 4:12 pm
Why are they called “blue”berries, when they are “purple”?
June 24th, 2006 4:17 pm
You’ve made me hungry with this entry. Not just for blueberries, but for the memorable experiences of summer that seem to burrow their way into our psyche forever.
Time to go make some more memories for our brood. Thank you for the inspiration. You always know how to light that fire in others.
June 24th, 2006 4:18 pm
Wow, your blueberries sure are early down there. Up here (as you well know) they’re not due for another 6 weeks or so, but we’ve had such a horribly wet spring that it may be even longer. I like to think of northern Maine at the end of August as the prime blueberry picking time. Those tiny Maine berries are so good!
Here via Michele today
June 24th, 2006 4:20 pm
If they’re really ripe they are more blue than purple.
I remember picking them wild with my nana on the cape.
June 24th, 2006 4:46 pm
I never knew you had a blueberry bush???? Where is it and when can I have some?? xo
June 24th, 2006 5:16 pm
I had to stop by because your “elevator humor” comment on Kestrel’s blog made me giggle, particularly that other people followed you into the closet. 😆
Less off topic – your post almost makes me wish it was summer here, almost.
June 24th, 2006 5:21 pm
We probably won’t go down to Pungo to pick until July. Mom has a great recipe for blueberry pie. Half cooked, half raw, just right.
June 25th, 2006 12:38 am
OMG Colleen, they look so tasty!
June 25th, 2006 1:27 am
Fresh blueberries. Yum. It’s such a delight picking berries and hearing that plunk. Got to go again to get enough for the BD pie?
June 25th, 2006 6:55 am
One of my favorite, favorite, fruits and good for you too!
Yes, as you commented to Bobby; whenever I smell them we’re little kids again picking blueberries with nana.
Blueberries grow wild on the side of my yard but they are very small (small blackberries too) .
The story of eating the pies while swimming in your neighbors pond sounds like a slice of heaven…blueberry heaven.
June 25th, 2006 8:51 am
yummy yummy YUMMY! we don’t get them here! boo hoo hoo… i do miss blueberries now terribly.
what a lovely post and what a lovely picture to remeber summer days by.
lovely.
June 25th, 2006 9:59 am
When we bought our house, my husband planted blueberry bushes in our yard, in the hopes that we could grow our own. Sadly, we only got 3 or 4 berries in the entire time we had them. The soil wasn’t acidic enough, I guess. He took the blueberry bushes out yesterday and planeted hydrangeas in their place.
June 25th, 2006 10:37 am
I mulch them with pine needles; that helps.
June 25th, 2006 10:49 am
wow, blueberry pie – mmmm
June 29th, 2006 7:21 am
Jeeze Colleen … sometimes (often, actually) your writing style brings me right around to Annie Dillard’s. I know we two have talked about her before … but wow. I just had to say it again.
Beautiful imagery in this post.