What wondrous life is this I lead!

What wondrous life is this I lead!
Ripe apples drop about my head;
The luscious clusters of the vine
Upon my mouth do crush their wine;
The nectarine, and curious peach,
Into my hands themselves do reach;
Stumbling on melons, as I pass,
Ensnared with flowers, I fall on grass.
-Andrew Marvell

I love this poem by Andrew Marvell. Once upon a time I used to read quite a lot of his poetry...and this one just sums up our harvest life at Birdland.

And today at Birdland, it was the day of the nectarine.


We have two nectarine trees and the earlier one produces smaller, white/green nectarines that we enjoyed a couple of months ago...but the second tree has big red nectarines that we adore! It's been nearly 2 months since the first tree ripened and we've been watching and checking for ripeness of the other tree for a while now - the nectarines went red quite a while ago but have been slower than usual in ripening.


John went out today however and has had his eye on this one large nectarine for a while. We need to too as there is big competition between ourselves, the birds, the racoons, the oppossums, the skunks...and who knows who else. Anyhow - John picked this massive nectarine today and we ate it while it was still warm from the afternoon sun. To say it was perfect seems an understatement!


And look at how many more we have to pick....and I'm only here for a week before I head east. Guess I'll be eating lots of nectarines between now and next Saturday.


"Oh dear"...I hear you cry... "Poor Ruth"!!! Thanks for the sympathy - I'll think of you too, as I relish in my "wondrous life". Better still, why not pop round and share some of our bounty...