Driving the Tractor

It has been so hot that the grapes are very forward, and harvest might start in as soon as two weeks. Today they were testing the sugars, but beforehand I went with Karen to feed the cattle and see the newest baby, soft donkey-grey hide, melting long-lashed eyes and still wobbly legs. Oddly, he was following one of the older calves, not his mother, who was so eager to get at the hay that she kept walking in front of the tractor while I tried not to run her down.

The filming went very well, even though we lost the antenna to one of the radio receivers - it is such a rough passage going through branches and over gopher holes we often seem to lose something or other.

I took some time out to go down to the spring and pick blackberries, such a timeless, evocative past-time. I am going to make a rough pie with them, with the edges of the pastry folded over.

Today is the day all Americans barbeque for the Labor Day weekend, but we will have family over for my birthday brunch tomorrow instead. for now, I just want to be quiet and mooch about in my garden, and digest all the family history I have discovered the last few days. And make a pie, pastry to Miriam's recipe.