A moment of pure bliss washed over me today when i found a new patch of blackberries the size of golf balls close to the pathway that i normally take the dogs on. I had ridden over to the farm up the road to get some eggs and a few other veggies that they grow, when i thought it must be time to have a peak at the blackberry crop. I laid the bike down and called the dogs back and very carefully stepped through the treacherous barbed canes to reach the soft black fruit. My effort was richly rewarded.
When adventure dave and i came out here to look for a house from Calgary in 2006, i was gobsmacked by the fact that not only did wild blackberries pour out of every rugged nook and cranny of the valley but wild, unloved apple trees grew in the road allowances and plums fell off only mourned by the wasps that were eating their sweet flesh.
I made a promise to myself that i would never forget to see the abundance of free wild fruit to fill my freezer and jam jars and that i would not become too busy or preoccupied to take time to get out there and pick it. I have found that it makes the most perfect break from a day like today where i spent all day throwing highly specific (read frustrating) french butter dish halves that must fit exactly inside each other, to jump on the bike with a bag of tupperware or pails and go collect fruit and toss it in the freezer! The house might be a bit too hot tonight to make jam but in the rainy season i welcome standing in front of a warm stove simmering the bubbling jam in the amazing pot dave got for me.
Today is our anniversary. We have been married for 8 years and i could not feel more unconditionally loved, through all the enormous changes i have incurred, with all my battle scars and a clear obsession with pots that has grown over everything like the blackberries that I love so much, husband dave has gently fanned the ashes of my many incarnations and helped me find and rekindle my roots, the true self, deep underneath my ideas and self assessments. There is no greater gift.
