summer whine

i've planted raspberry plants a gazillion times ... raspberries and their leaves are full of good stuff for human beings - minerals and vitamins and tannins ... anywho ... every year i'd plant a few raspberry bushes and they never grew ... i'm not talking about producing fruit ... i mean the plants never grew ... not even enough to harvest a few leaves for infusions

a few years ago one of my coworkers was complaining about her raspberry plants being totally out of control so her husband took a rototiller to them and their roots were sending up shoots all over the garden and there were too many berries for five people and who likes raspberries anyway and wah wah wah

are you kidding me?!? you have got to be kidding me!!!

anywho ... she threw some dirt in some old plastic nursery pots, stuck in a few shoots, and brought them to me
honestly, dianne - i don't know why you would want these - they grow like weeds and i don't want to hear you complaining about them being out of control in your yard

i carefully loaded the pots into my car and brought my new babies home ... i left them in the pots for the first two years cuz i was afraid that if i planted them they would go into shock and die ... i finally planted them in a sheltered area ... and watered them ... and talked to them ... and pretty much begged them to grow ... they kinda sputtered and wilted ... and most of them died ... two years ago the three plants that were left came up and grew a little bit ... last year there were actually blossoms on the plants ... those blossoms developed into the most beautiful red raspberries ... they were sweet and delicious ... and they were gone in about two seconds cuz five raspberries are not even a hand full ... this year the plants went a little crazy ... there were berries ... more than five ... a lot more than five ... and i had visions of raspberry jam on buttered toast in the midst of the cold, dark winter to come ... one morning Auntia was checking out her pumpkin plants ... she came in with a few ripe raspberries ... LuLu opened her mouth like a little bird, signed please, and ate those raspberries ... i told myself not to worry cuz there would be more raspberries the next day ... but LuLu was thinking the same thing ... every day for two weeks Auntia would pick a bunch of raspberries ... and every day LuLu would eat all of them ... one morning last week i went outside very early on the pretense of watering the potted plants and picked all of the ripe berries ... i sneaked inside and poured a bowl of cereal ... sprinkled some sugar on top ... and added my treasure... red raspberries on rice chex ... Oh. My. Gawd.

i sat down ... and i ate them ... before a certain little baby girl could gobble them down while squealing
MINE! MINE! now me! now me!
i suppose i shoulda felt guilty ... and i did a little bit ... so ... yesterday i begrudgingly shared the first zucchini (sauteed with olive oil, garlic and onion) with LuLu ... and guess what? she didn't like it - bwah ha ha!!!
nobody else likes zucchini ... which means that it is all
MINE! MINE! now me! now me!