front yard raspberries

Remembrance Day today. A time to remember. The fiance and I took time out today to go to the ceremony on Commercial Drive. Strange to notice how few old boys were there. Like my Pa, many of them have long since passed on and soon there will be none left to tell what they’ve seen. Strangely though, today was different for me because suddenly, at 28 years old, many of my friends and former classmates are now veterans. That fact is discordant with even my own notion of what a veteran looks like – the shaky old fellow back in his old uniform wiping away tears at the service – but now the veterans are the guys I drank beer with in university. Odd and sad in a new way. It was, however, lovely to hear the squeals and laugher of children playing on the nearby playground during the moment of silence. A nice reminder of why all those men and women make the sacrifices that they do.

As I was waiting for my ride to the service I poked about the garden and was shocked to discover heaps and heaps of raspberries on my canes along the neighbour’s fence. They were absolutely heavy with fruit. November 11th!! I couldn’t believe it. And not only my “Fall Gold” were fruiting – three of my six plants had beautiful berries on them. At this time of year you can easily pay 5 dollars or more for a tiny handful at the market, so I felt like a complete glutton, but what a treat! Despite the miserable weather they were sweet and juicy and tender. What bliss.

Tonight we are having family over for dinner of roasted beet and goat cheese salad, roast chicken and potatoes and butter and brown sugar carrots. As I was cleaning the carrots I couldn’t help but think about the first harvest back in the spring. My family was over and I was pulling carrots over beers in the backyard. I pulled out a handful and exclaimed – Look at how straight they are!! Whoo! To which my sister rolled her eyes and made some cheeky remark about the obviousness of my statement. And I said – Spoken like someone who’s never tried to grow carrots!

That’s the great thing about the garden. Here I am, mid-November, pulling and washing carrots from the front yard marveling at the fact that they are actually straight. The garden makes you realize that many of the things we take for granted – like straight carrots or fresh raspberries in November – really are minor miracles.