this is our first year to have apricots.
we've lived here for two, but last year the buds froze off.
there's a huge tree in our backyard.
it has always been here, so we basically forgot about it until last week
when orange, golf ball shaped fruit started plopping down and dotting the grass.
homegrown, midwestern apricots are a lot smaller than storebought
i really really like apricots. they are similar to a peach, but more mellow, not as fuzzy.
the apricots are everywhere.
i've never picked one off the tree in my life.
even as we bend and kneel on the ground, reaching and collecting fruit,
there is a rustle as one free falls through the branches,
plop plop it bounces and then rolls a few feet.
they seem to never stop coming from the sky.
in the mornings, the grass is covered.
after lunch we collect a few more pints.
in evening we fight mosquitoes and other bugs.
despite the seemingly never ending task,
i have a feeling these are the summers i'll look back on fondly,
when the sunlight was dappled,
my knees were green and muddy,
we shared our free bounty with neighbors,
and sweet, orange, apricot juice slides down my arms off my elbows.
