Monday, August 24, 2015

August

A bowl of orange tomatoes and green and red peppers sits on the counter.  It is a still life waiting to be painted.  Large bowls and baskets of peaches, apples, and pears have dwindled down as I've tackled the peeling, cutting up and freezing.  I've squirreled away what I had room for and made a few jars of no-sugar-added jams for the Winter.

There is a mystery regarding the fruit trees.  I had to pick a lot of unripe fruit in order to get any for myself.  At first, half-eaten peaches and their stones were left all over the ground under the trees, presumably by the deer and groundhogs, possums, etc.  I picked as much of the low hanging peaches as I could deal with, leaving the high fruits beyond the reach of deer.  I soon noticed that there were no longer half-eaten fruit and no pits at all under the trees.  No deer were coming at dusk anymore.  However, most of the high fruit was being rapidly and efficiently picked during the night.  Lights and wind chimes had no effect on the thievery.

I wondered just what (or who) was picking fruit during the night.  It was obviously animals who either took the whole fruits away or ate them stone and all.

It wouldn't be turkeys or other birds, because they would, presumably leave the pits.  Could it be bears?  Giraffes?  Troupes of baboons?

Although I could train a camera on the trees and find out, I'm thinking I'll just let the mystery be.  It would be a shame to eliminate the fanciful imagining of night visitors to my peach trees.