Baboon Achievers, Food, gardening, Nature

Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries

21 Comments

Today’s post comes to us from Jacque.

 I love cherries.  A bowl of cherries just sends me over the edge of contentment into pure joy.    However, seldom in life have I found life to be consistently as good as the dear old axiomatic bowl of cherries.  It is especially not as good as the cherry pie made from cherries ala Door County, Wisconsin (sour pie cherries).

Now I am the pleased owner of a sour pie cherry tree.  For many years on holidays like Mother’s Day or birthdays, I have been getting trees and plants for the garden or yard.  There are not many physical belongings I want or need.  So I ask for trees and plants.  They contribute oxygen to the atmosphere and produce for my table.  And every time we plant one of those it is less grass to mow and tend.

The cherry tree was a Mother’s Day gift two years ago.   This year it produced a bowl of cherries, after producing nary a cherry last summer.  And then I produced a cherry pie. It is delicious.  There are two pieces left as of the writing of this post.  By the time you read this, it will be gone.

Recently, when I passed a major professional certification process, my colleague brought me a red Wiegala bush as a congratulations gesture.    The “therapy certification bush” now stands proudly in the front lawn, reminding me that I did this thing.  It makes me smile.

What do you like to get as a gift?

21 thoughts on “Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries”

  1. An outing or experience of some sort is a wonderful gift – play tickets, a concert, a day at a museum, a meal in a good restaurant.

    And, of course, something chocolate is always welcome.

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply

  2. I love your gifts!
    Here I’d have no place to be planting…I do transplanting. I receive gifts from the birds or whatever animal has brough seed…now several columbine…and a first this year was a Nodding Terillium.

    My gifts from daughter and grandchildren….are always items they know I will like. I’ve received many hoodies over the years. Hoodies that celebrate state championships in their particular sport, travel teams of granddaughter, golf other granddaughter….and the latest was modern image of horse head including musical notes=grandsons band fundraiser for the Bronco band trip to play at Universal Studios in December. The other gifts they give usually involve Lavender…candles, lotions etc……..i love lavender.

    Husband and I don’t necessarily do gift giving at times most expected…instead there are surprises throughout the year. Most recent was a handbag from Duluth Pack….something I’ve always wanted but wouldn’t afford. He liked the fact that they are guaranteed for life. (I should have gotten one years ago!) I always receive some kind of gift on our anniversary. Sometimes a wildflower…champagne or dinner out. 30th=a gold band with diamonds embedded…simple and perfect.(I had wanted a gold band for a long time) The most outrageous were the old beat up car with a huge bow and writing sprayed huge “Happy Anniversary love, me” parked in our drive-neighbors loved it- (I’d had several fender benders with our new van)…and on our 45th=45 roses! Overwhelming to say the least. I did make several bouquets which were throughout the house.

    Whatever the gift…when I know it comes from the heart…with love…I love it.

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply

  3. Rise and Shoot Off some Fireworks Baboons!

    Happy 4th Baboons. Yesterday at the end of the day Linda commented on not really feeling like celebrating this year. I do understand that feeling. Today I am choosing to live in denial, unrealistic hope, and sunny optimism despite the facts. Plus I have some kind of a virus and seem to be running a fever so I have an excuse to stay in bed protecting the dogs from fireworks and reality.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  4. Like Linda, I enjoy some kind of experience as much as or more than most material gifts. I would love to have our front door painted a bright color, however, and have mentioned that it would make a great gift for some event.

    Nice photo up top, is it yours, Jacque?

    A bit OT: as a like long collector of bowls, I appreciate Mary Englebreit’s card (Life is just a chair of bowlies):
    https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=bN%2bXDcOc&id=39C00FD03C3765CF2E461C550129D26C0665FD8E&thid=OIP.bN-XDcOcVZxdC4gcWPoaUADSEs&q=mary+engelbreit&simid=608038165192704194&selectedIndex=88&ajaxhist=0

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  5. Ooh, I love sour pie cherries. We are making cherry phyllo strudels with Ranier and sour cherries today. I just got a real nifty cherry pitter.

    Husband and I avoid planting fruit trees because they are disease prone and are too much work to maintain. I envy you that cherry tree, though. What do you do for its upkeep?

    I love cookbooks as gifts. Husband says he likes to get me improptu gifts as the situation arises. He also says he thinks his very presence is a wonderful gift for me!🙄

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

  6. I don’t have a yard to plant beautiful things like trees, flowers or vegetables, but I love the idea of those as gifts. I would love tickets to plays or concerts. But usually I just get gift cards to my favorite clothing stores.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  7. Anything from the heart is good. I like hand-made as well. For Solstice a dear friend sewed two shopping bags for me. They each have an elastic hoop at the bottom, so I can fold them and roll them up so they are about the size of a small orange. I carry them in my purse in case I forget to take a bag into a store with me. Fabulous!

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply

  8. I love small impromptu gifts, both as a giver and as a recipient. Gifts that show that the giver knows you well enough to know what you’ll appreciate. My Finnish friend, Tuula, doesn’t often make it to the Farmers’ Market. She’s thrilled when I swing by unannounced to drop off a bag of small, new potatoes, a bunch of crisp radishes, a glorious bouquet of flowers, or a loaf of special bread.

    Our friend, David, is an avid outdoors man who knows I like to cook. Over the years he has gifted me with large bags of wild rice that he has harvested himself, maple syrup that he has tapped and refined, and pheasants he has shot and cleaned for me. Great gifts, all.

    This morning a neighbor brought me a bag full of fresh lettuces, and collard and mustard greens from her garden; such a nice treat. Another neighbor, having helped herself to some rhubarb from my yard when I wasn’t home, just brought me a couple of freshly baked rhubarb scones. How can you not love neighbors or gifts like that? My friend, Helen, makes the best fruitcake, and I’m lucky enough to be on her list of friends who gets one for Christmas each year.

    Like many baboons, I’m ever so slowly divesting myself of “stuff,” so I have been discouraging people from buying us gifts that take up space. Some of my favorite gifts are small and relatively inexpensive: a nice handmade soap, a bottle of wine, a jar of homemade pickles or salsa, it’s really pretty simple. As sherrilee so aptly said, anything from heart is good.

    Liked by 5 people

    Reply

  9. We’ve had a cherry tree just about everywhere we’ve lived and I don’t think we’ve ever harvested enough cherries to make a pie. We don’t even try anymore. The trouble is that the birds love cherries, so that one day the cherries are approaching perfection and the next day they’re gone. We get some pleasure in treating the birds.

    Presents are something of a challenge at our house. We tend to get things for ourselves or each other when the notion occurs, regardless of whether it’s an official occasion. And Robin’s primary desire these days is for some particular type of yarn, which I can’t buy for her, whereas my most likely desire is for some particular copy of some specific nineteenth century book that nobody else would be able to pick out for me.

    One of the best, most useful presents I can remember receiving is a set of Wüsthof knives my daughters bought me about 12 years ago when they both worked at Crate & Barrel. I think I’ve used them every single day (that I’ve been at home) since.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

    1. That’s pretty much the gift giving situation with us as well, Bill. Valentine’s Day, for instance, gets routinely ignored at our house, as neither of us can get on board with romance on demand. Anniversaries and birthdays tend to get acknowledged with a special dinner, flowers, and perhaps a small gift. But more often than not, a special gift is something that we stumble upon and think that other would appreciate, and so we pick it up in the moment. I know I can never go wrong by giving him a nice bottle of Balvenie, and he knows that I’ll consider a jar a pickled okra or a chunk of stinky cheese a special treat. Oh, and he loves salty licorice. I rarely pass up the opportunity to buy some when I see it.

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

  10. I’m particularly enjoying the gift of raspberry canes that Linda gave me a few years ago. Had enough berries picked yesterday and today to have a big cup of them with fresh whipped cream this afternoon. Yum!

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

    1. The small kindnesses we extend to, and receive from, others are really gifts that keep giving. I’m sure all the baboons who have enjoyed a weekend or two at Steve’s rustic cabin on Lake Superior appreciate the generous spirit with which that opportunity was offered.

      I still treasure the memory of all the baboons that showed up to whip my garden into shape after my fall. The most amazing thing to me was that I had never even met half of them before. Such a kind offer of support and a generous gift of time. And Renee’s offer to shelter Hans when his solo retirement road trip brought him to her neck of the woods. Also, Edith passing on to me boxes and boxes of books to be distributed from a Little Free Library.

      As Sherrilee’s comment above shows, sometimes small gifts that we may not even consider a gift in the moment, are gifts that keep on giving.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  11. I really have difficulty with giving or receiving gifts “on demand.” Christmas is especially difficult because it seems that everybody in this country is all scrambling to find gifts before Dec. 25 and it creates rather a frenzied, stressed atmosphere everywhere. There’s something about feeling you have to find gifts for several people on an imposed deadline that kind of sucks the joy out of giving gifts, not to mention some people are just easier to find gifts for than others, yet you have to come up with something.

    I was at a 60th birthday party for a neighbor a couple months ago and I was shocked that people brought gifts – I thought that, first that the party itself, friends getting together, was all that was needed, and second that at that age everyone thinks of downsizing not getting more things, so you would be doing the better thing by not giving the birthday girl more “stuff.” I guess I was wrong. Thank goodness that as an introvert I can skip the birthday parties for myself and not get unwanted gifts.

    Food gifts are good. Certain photography equipment is good (although most people aren’t going to go out and buy that for me, it tends to be pricey). I’m afraid I’m very particular, even about my chocolate, but I still like it when I’m surprised by a gift that was chosen by someone who knows me well enough to pick out something they know I will enjoy.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  13. I’m blessed to have family, friends, and even some students that know me so well that they strive to give me gifts based upon my interest. I enjoy getting gifts that I can appreciate that connect to things I love and like to do. For instance, I absolutely love the color purple and wear it about 95 percent of the time. I never thought I would be like a former church friend who only ever wore the color purple. One of the first things people discover about me is my love for purple. At the end of this past school year one of me darling students presented me with a gift bag. Inside the bag was a beautiful plush lavender
    large-size towel and a sliver lite purple and blue sparkly ring. Of course immediately after I hugged and thanked this particular student I had to do the feel test for the towel and try on the ring. On that same day, another student gave me a card with a beautiful purple and black bracelet she made me. Not only do I love bracelets with my favorite color included, I’m sentimental when it comes to cards given to me by family, friends, students, etc. These sentimental feelings have led to my trying to devise different ways to creatively hold onto the various cards I receive each year.

    Like

    Reply

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.