Blackberry winter

September equals


warm days, cold nights, Jonathan's birthday, blueberries, Grand Final fever, rain showers, blossoms, last holidays before Christmas, wattle, chai tea AND ice cream (happy medium), boot sales, Father's Day, new leaves on the trees...and September blues, which in my case means a lull in the mode of frantic assignment writing I've been trapped in.  


Last uni assignment was handed in on Friday, and now I'm a free woman! (for two weeks)  
So, I'm finally writing my first blog post.  (I can't say it's my first EVER, since I already wrote a 'tester'.  It was promptly deleted as the only thing I write was 'testing' about 100 times.)


It's finally spring, so I googled 'spring synonyms' just because I love words.  Among other boring terms, blackberry winter stood out.  Apparently, if you're in Tennessee, you know it's blackberry winter when there is a cold snap just as the weather is warming up.  I'd say that's now, since this morning I was wearing a t-shirt, and now I'm wearing two hoodies, ugg boots, and jeans + leggings.  I'm not in Tennessee, but why not make blackberry winters universal?
(The only slight problem is that blackberries come out in a totally different season over this side of the globe.)


On Sunday, I wheedled Dad to walk me down to the Gully down the road.  It's really only a puny scrap of land wedged in between someone's property, and the dirt road, but deep down by the dry creek bed (it slopes down quite a bit) it's dark, secluded and beautiful.  On one side of the creek stands a pine 'forest', and the other is full of slender young gum trees - quite a contrast. 

Who owns this gorgeous piece of land?

Once upon a time we picked wild blackberries by the recycled-plastic-Chinese-container-full, every February.  Now, the blackberries have completely disappeared...sprayed? 

Spring has left the creek bed full of vibrant green grass, brown puddles, and an old car.

A piece of junk can look so beautiful when nature has grown over it.

I don't go there much, but the Gully will always be a part of my literary treasury.  It's the setting for a short story I wrote to enter into the Alan Marshall Short Story competition.  Maybe I'll put it up on my new blog someday... 


The sky is periwinkle blue today.  There are no clouds trapping any warm sun rays so the air is crispy cold.  The only blackberries in this blackberry winter are the frozen ones we have in our mixed berry box in the freezer.  

Weeds can be pretty...