Mulberries Are Awesome

When I was a teenager, my parents had a yard with a fruitless mulberry tree in the backyard.  My boyfriend's parents had one in the front yard. I assume people buy fruitless trees because they don't want rotten fruit dropping off and ruining their nice cars or whatever.

But I think of all the years I missed out on the wonderful taste of real mulberries. My neighbor has both red and white mulberries ripening right now and they are amazing. The white ones are not so pretty but really yummy. They taste like honeysuckles. The red ones turn black when they are ripe. They are a bit more tart but also yummy. My neighbor said the birds get most of them, and it keeps the birds away from her other fruit trees.  If we had a ladder we could pick enough to make jam. But I'm perfectly happy just eating them one by one.

Saying Good-bye to My Favorite Rose

As if to say good-bye, my favorite rose presented me with a bouquet of all stages of bloom on one branch. I hope the new owner (the place is in escrow) has the good sense to let the rose go on bringing pleasure to the next renter. It's huge right now because I stopped trimming it when the current owner said he was going to rip it out. And nothing else is blooming on it, except that one branch, as if it was a present to me.

So I cut it off and put it in a vase to enjoy as I pack up the kitchen.

And of course I took photos of it to share with you. I paid $5 for this bush at a swap meet. Best bargain ever!

I'm moving to the desert so the garden there will be completely different than anything I am used to. But the yard is gigantic and the landlady doesn't seem too particular about what we do with it. And she's an avid gardener.