small good thing

[redbird]

We were pleasantly surprised to find fresh local plums at the farmer's market this morning. The farmer told us that they'd been surprised too: this is a tree that wasn't expected to bear for another year or two, and a couple of days ago they saw the ripe fruit. These are nice reddish-purple round plums, yellow inside; they are in a bowl on the counter, and I am checking them a couple of times a day for ripeness, and moving them to the refrigerator as appropriate. I ate one of the just-ripened ones at about 4 o'clock; it hadn't been ripe at 10:45. The frequent checking is a precaution, after I put the big Italian prunes we bought last week (which were also a surprise, and thought the last of the season) in a paper bag and left them on the counter, and they went from under- to overripe annoyingly fast, in a paper bag on the counter.

Also, the bakery with the really good baguettes, which was missing last week, was back today.