Asakiyume mita

Today I didn't have to go to work, so I picked red currants. My bushes are full, bowed down.

branch bowed down


underneath


And the berries glow.


There was life everywhere all around while I was picking--tiny life, little spiders, a daddy longlegs, tiny caterpillars, mother mosquitoes hoping I had a meal for them, and also bigger life, orioles singing up high in trees, invisible, and robins and bluejays, and next door, the neighbors' grandkids, splashing in a pool, and under my feet and knees as I alternately squat and kneel, there's soft green moss, and it's so gloriously, softly hot--heat woven on moisture and full of scents--the grass, the flowers, the dirt, my shampoo, my deodorant, a whiff of the laundry detergent--the humid heat holds these scents. (It's the time of year that edible chestnuts are in bloom--oh the scent of those as you pass them). I never, ever feel more alive or happy than on a summer day like this, life pressing against me. Each moment is bliss.

... Here is the same branch, no longer bowed down.



And here are the pickings from just this one bush:



This will become red currant jelly. The berries on the two other bushes may be just for eating out of hand and for things like fruit in scones. We'll see.