Seasonal pleasures

Yesterday morning, I was gathering mulberries in the local park, near a sidewalk. Someone saw me and asked whether they were sweet. I said yes and explained that she should look for the black or very dark purple ones, because those are ripe. She thanked me and headed toward the subway; I picked and ate a few more berries and then went home.

And for dinner last night, we had raisin French toast with fresh local strawberries. Raisin French toast because I stopped at a bakery on my way home Tuesday evening, and they were out of plain challah, but had a raisin challah left. I got home and cattitude said that it would make good French toast. He was right. (It would have made good French toast with maple syrup, too, but while I brought the syrup to the table, neither of us used it.)

This morning in the park, we saw a turtle on the lawn, with her head up, looking around or maybe sniffing the air. She was holding still when we first saw her, then started moving, slightly away from the water, and then away from us and parallel to the bank (we may have startled her). She then walked back to the edge of the salt marsh, started to walk down the concrete slope, and then slid the rest of the way to the water. I'm guessing that she had finished laying eggs before we got there; if she was looking for a good place she will probably try again tonight. I'm not expecting baby turtles: even if she found a male to mate with, the buried eggs are likely to be dug up by dogs, raccoons, or skunks. (These turtles, while I'm happy to see them, are neither native to the area nor threatened, so I'm not going to find a park ranger and see if they can do anything to protect the nest.)

And this afternoon I met drcpunk and our friend L. at the Grand Central Oyster Bar for a late lunch of matjes herring filets. (I had one piece of herring and some crab soup; drcpunk had two pieces of herring; and L had one piece of herring and some herring salad. Then drcpunk and I had ridiculously rich desserts, a chocolate cake with golden raspberries, served with curry creme anglaise [sic, a very mild curry, and it actually does work] and whipped cream alongside. Then I bought a cup of tea (must maintain caffeine levels), and we walked over to Bryant Park and talked until it was time for me to go to the gym.

I had a pretty good workout with Emilie (though she showed up significantly late, because of baby stuff, and since she had to teach a class after our session she owes me ten minutes which I hope I will get next week, assuming the baby doesn't insist on being fed at exactly the wrong time again). ( numbers, as usual, mostly from memory )