Sharyl's Jewelry & Reflections: Inspiration: Last of Summer's Fruit

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Inspiration: Last of Summer's Fruit

Growing up, the end of each summer was a bittersweet time for me.

As a child, summer meant days with more chores, but more free time playing out of doors with neighbor friends too. Fall involved trading all that in for homework after school.
The end of summer meant the closing of the swimming pool where my sister and I spent our days.
It was an exciting back-to-school time of picking out new school supplies and some new clothing and shoes, meeting new teachers, and one last trip to the Dairy Joy with Mom to get a special soft-serve ice cream treat--usually a twist cone with one side chocolate and one side vanilla swirled high above the cone.
And it meant it was about time to clean up the garden we worked in with Dad, the end of hoeing and weeding in the heat, but also the end of the home-grown fruits and vegetables.*

In our garden we grew... vegetables (corn, tomatoes, potatoes, peas, green beans, onions, Japanese eggplant, lettuce, cabbage, beets, and more). We also had fruit: strawberry, watermelon, cantaloupe, and honeydew vines; huckleberry bushes; and apple, peach and plum trees. It was so good to have fresh food from the trees and garden, and it was fun (as well as hard work) to be a part of helping it grow.

Sadly, I admit I can get nothing to grow in my current soil except perennial flowers. I enjoy these immensely, but buy my fruits and veggies elsewhere. Still, I hate to see summer come to an end with all the good fruit! (Soon, it will be apples, imported oranges and bananas for much of the winter.)

So here is a little last "hurrah!" for a few of my favorite summer fruits (...and a few pieces of jewelry that remind me of them, of course!)

Raspberries:

Sweet, juicy, slightly bumpy, red!