Month: October 2020

The fruits come in fast from August through September.  First, scuppernogs.

Oh how I love them!  I did not even know they existed until 2017 when we went to South Carolina to see the Solar eclipse.  I am a random shopper.  I very much look at something and say, “what is that?” and “Hey, let’s try it!”  Food in particular.  I was in a farm stand and saw what were called scuppernogs.  I later learned they are also called muscadine grapes  These are wild grapes that grow in the south. (They have everything in the South.)  They are huge and sweet but not too because the skin is tart.  The idea is to put them in your mouth, work off the skin and pop the seeds them enjoy.  It is a lot of work, yes, but no more than concord grapes which I also love.

I already have a concord grape vine.  I’d like to plant a scuppernog vine and see what happens.  The idea of wild grapes makes me giddy.  I just love the idea of wild growing fruit.

Then figs, figs, figs  I just cannot eat enough figs, particularly green figs.  Little bundles of honey sweet joy.  Mmmmm. Mmmmm.  I ate all the green figs so I only have a picture of black figs which are almost but not quite as good.  (Brown turkey figs are very much last on the list of figs worth eating, purchased only when there are no other figs to buy.  (Sorry turkey figs.)

Then come passion fruits.  Hello, California? Can you ship me some passions please?  They come five pounds at a time and we just eat them up. Floral, tart, juicy, crunchy.  We met these fruits in Sri Lanka, where they have them just everywhere.  Here, they cost a fortune to buy if you don’t buy in bulk.  And I am all about bulk passion fruits purchases. 

For those who know my history, I have been in a decades long battle with Neptune, the god of the sea.  Neptune has it in for me and he tortures me with water leaks.  He drives me crazy.  In this house alone we have had five water leaks in the basement–two pinholes leaks from water pipes, one of which destroyed half of the ceiling as it collapsed from the strain, and three bouts of water damage from gutters misbehaving.

Recently,we had a torrential rainstorm–four inches in an hour.  There was a raging river in our backyard and in the front yard.  One of our gutters that feeds into an underground drainage system backed up (because the drainage system is clogged, which is a whole ‘nother story) and the water poured out of the gutter, down the foundation, and into the basement.  We did not even know it until two days later.  I was vacuuming and when I passed over the carpet next to the wall, the vacuum moaned.  My hand confirmed that the carpet was soaked.  We had to move the furniture, rip out the carpet padding and run fans for a week.  Then we had carpet repairs and cleaning.  I cannot tell you how disruptive this is when you spend a lot of your time in the basement.  My gym was closed for repairs.

I then had to go to work figuring out how to manage that gutter.  It took me a few tries but I finally decided to disconnect the entire downspout and redirect it away from the underground system to another part of the yard.  It took a lot of trips to Lowe’s, a lot of cussing, a lot of mud all over me, but I wrestled it to the ground. I made a nice little rock fall for it so it looks nice too!  Hey, you have to be creative.

But I confess, Neptune wins again.  I wish I knew what I did to earn his wrath. I have tried to apologize but he just will not listen.