Berries and other fruit

Maybe it's because we haven't had any significant rain for months now that there is so much fruit all around the hamlet. I've picked plums several times and made more jelly that I know what to do with. I just can't pick any more, and now they are really ripe. Why aren't the birds eating them? The plums are sweet and juicy.

Most of the blackberries I see around the hamlet and vineyard are tiny. While they look ripe, they don't taste or feel like they're ready to pick or good to eat. A day or two ago on my morning walk I saw these growing over a hedge right on the paved road that ends right behind our house. These are ripe and sweet, but nobody is picking them. Maybe I should.

And of course this is grape country. Wine country. It's time to start thinking about picking these too. The harvesting here is done almost exclusively by machine. One day soon I'm sure we'll see and hear the harvesters out in the vineyard and the grapes will be gone pretty fast. Because of the drought, this will probably be a banner year for Touraine wines, even if the harvest is smaller than usual.

It's just so dry. I wonder if the last time northern France experiences such a long summertime dry spell was the one everybody remembers from 1976. I wasn't living here then — I had gone back to the U.S. in February 1976 after living and working in Paris for a couple of years. I believe weather patterns are cyclical, but this current one is way off the charts. It really does seem like the weather is completely out of whack. And now there's a big hurricane moving relentlessly toward Florida...