June 4: Rabbit and blackberries
Jun. 4th, 2010 10:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
neverspentI went out for a walk this evening at dusk. It's harder to motivate myself to walk here in the city, because I find the constant traffic noise and the presence of a lot of other people stressful. But I'm lucky: there's still a lot of nature to be found. The hospital complex where I walk includes some land that's left untended, a wasteland full of shrubs and vines, a small creek, and the last uncut portions of an old wood with tall white oaks. From the higher vantage point of my balcony, I've seen raccoons and even a fox in the area. And there seem to be quite a few cottontail rabbits.
I saw one this evening, for the first time this year in the city. It had emerged from the brambles and last year's tall brown canes of ragweed and was sitting motionless in the mowed grass beside the pavement. It looked like it might want to head toward the road, but after I snapped a picture, I walked toward it and it headed back to the safety of the tall grass.
And then... there were berries.
I waded right into the edge of the brush and picked the ones you see in the photo and popped them into my mouth right away. Small (the size of my index fingernail), sweet, juicy, not tart at all, and pure summer. If I could figure out how to type the incoherent noises of pleasure I made when I ate them, I would.
I mentioned back in my first post, referring to mid-April to early May, that there seemed to be an unusually high number of blackberry blossoms this year. That has certainly been followed by the equivalent number of berries. Most of them are not ripe yet. They are red before they turn black.
But when they are, I could spend hours in the brambles picking them, if I didn't mind the trespassing risk. I believe the land technically belongs to the hospital system, and even though that area is allowed to grow wild, I've never seen anyone else taking advantage of the berries, and I wouldn't have to go more than eight feet away from the public sidewalk, if they wanted to accuse me of something, they probably could. Urban harvesting is tricky. A lot of owners aren't a bit interested in the bounty on their own land until they see someone else taking an interest.
I saw one this evening, for the first time this year in the city. It had emerged from the brambles and last year's tall brown canes of ragweed and was sitting motionless in the mowed grass beside the pavement. It looked like it might want to head toward the road, but after I snapped a picture, I walked toward it and it headed back to the safety of the tall grass.
And then... there were berries.
I waded right into the edge of the brush and picked the ones you see in the photo and popped them into my mouth right away. Small (the size of my index fingernail), sweet, juicy, not tart at all, and pure summer. If I could figure out how to type the incoherent noises of pleasure I made when I ate them, I would.
I mentioned back in my first post, referring to mid-April to early May, that there seemed to be an unusually high number of blackberry blossoms this year. That has certainly been followed by the equivalent number of berries. Most of them are not ripe yet. They are red before they turn black.
But when they are, I could spend hours in the brambles picking them, if I didn't mind the trespassing risk. I believe the land technically belongs to the hospital system, and even though that area is allowed to grow wild, I've never seen anyone else taking advantage of the berries, and I wouldn't have to go more than eight feet away from the public sidewalk, if they wanted to accuse me of something, they probably could. Urban harvesting is tricky. A lot of owners aren't a bit interested in the bounty on their own land until they see someone else taking an interest.