FREEGRACE FRIDAYS! Nature's Magic

I've been a little out of pocket as of late.  But there are lots of magical things brewing in the universe.

On the baking side, I've been working on the next book AND inventing lovely holiday treats for Better Homes and Garden's December issue.

On the Freegrace front, nature's magic is showing herself around every corner.

What are these hot pink orbs doing poking out of my maple?

I'd noticed a few months ago that there was something growing from our ancient maple in front of the house.  It occurred to me that perhaps I should take a ladder to the tree and pull it out but on the other hand, I'd have to pull out the ladder.  I'd also surmised that what I was seeing was a berry bramble in the making.  There was a time that I fought the onslaught of prickly buggers popping up everywhere on our property.  The birds go into our back acreage and gorge on berries and leave little deposits closer to the house the end up bearing fruit.  Literally.  To make it simple:  Bird eats berry.  Bird flies into the hole in the maple.  Bird poops.  Voila!  Berry bush.

Yesterday, during a break in the relentless rain, I took a trip out front and bright pops of hot pink drew me to our 100+ year old beauty.  And there they were, plump raspberries cascading from our maple.  Raspberries so wonderful I planted myself at the foot of the tree and ate every ripe berry I could find (I shared with Ray.  Promise).  Whether the berries were made particularly sweet from an infusion of maple or they're simply good because they'd been left to grow wild and ripen in their own time without human intervention really doesn't matter.  What matters is that these berries were sunshine and sweetness in a single bite.  I shall forever more encourage birdies to eat berries as they find them and carry their bounty wherever they like if this is what we end up with:  magic raspberry-maple trees.

In other breaking news, the ducklings are no longer ducklings.  They are now officially ducks.  All but a few pin feathers are in.  Mama is still enjoying their company but she's jealous when I spend too much time admiring them.  She's meant to be my favorite (and she is) and she'll have none of my preening over the babies, as evidenced by her constant photo-bombing when I take the time to snap away at the ducks.

I hope you're enjoy the magic of nature as much as I have been this summer.