Just a thought… The well of nature is full today. Go outside and take a drink. [Diane Ackerman]
*A quick important note about Drift with Erin Davis sleep stories:
If you are a listener to my tales on Spotify, you may notice that they’re missing. There’s been an interruption in the availability of my podcast on Spotify, and while we’re trying to get that rectified (a lot of flaming hoops) you can hear ALL 125+ sleep stories free, as always, at Apple, wherever you get podcasts or, perhaps most easily, here.
This will be the summer-iest blog I’ll ever write, but it comes from both the heart and the taste buds. Let’s dig in!
One of the greatest pleasures of this season in Canada is the abundance of freshly grown treasures – from corn that could make you cry with joy the way it explodes with sweetness in your mouth to tomatoes that taste like tomatoes – summer’s joyous flavours are too long to list. (But please do feel free to leave a comment on my Facebook page.
In the past few weeks on my long walks here on Pender Island, I have found but one big cluster of blackberry bushes. It’s situated just past a ditch (which puts me down another six inches below where I want to be) but I put my long monkey arms to good use. With the occasional help of a stick, I’m able to bring the higher branches down to me, so that I can gently tug to see if they’re ready to give up their clustered amethysts.
These spiky bushes don’t give up without a fight…
…and occasionally I’m plucking out a tiny sharp spike that’s made its way into my clothes or my skin. But the taste of a berry warmed by the sun on your joyous tongue? I’d squeal with delight if my mouth wasn’t full.
This long weekend, as we start into the next (hopefully gentler) chapter of summer in Canada, I leave you with a brief video (click here) taken while I was thinking of how picking blackberries is so much like life. Enjoy this. Taste the sweetness that life has to offer. And if you can, try to savour every second of our precious, golden summer, won’t you? I’ll be back this Thursday with Lisa Brandt and episode 188 of Gracefully and Frankly. Enjoy!