Ok, this may sound gross but I just had to see how far I could take it. I wrote earlier about my obsession with apples. Since, I moved back to the mountains almost 4 years ago, I have compulsively bought apples every harvest. Like other foods gathered at the perfect times of the year, harvest, is my favorite. It happens at various times and depends upon the food you want. I like eating seasonally. I feel connected, strong, and empowered. So, back to the image. The first year I moved back, I decided to start various traditions for me and my son Gabriel. He was only 4 and had only known the metropolitan life of the traffic, the never ending supply of Walmarts and Targets, and busy busy work driven parents. So I thought that a trip to the apple orchard, in the fall, was in order. We traveled the Parkway to view the changing of the leaves, toured the Apple Orchard, talked to the Entomologist in charge of tagging the Monarch Butterflies, watched as a chrysalis hatched, and enchanted ourselves by watching, mesmerized, the indoor/outdoor honeybee hive. The day ended with the purchase of many bags of apples. These were promptly put into bowls for eating and into the refridgerator for storing. We have two fridges, one that came with our house (Gabriel's) and one that we owned from G'boro (Mommy's). The apples were stored in Gabriel's boy fridge because it had more room for long time occupance and the bottom drawers had no plan of use. So I ate and ate and cooked and ate until I could not eat another apple, let alone see one, so I forgot about the last remaining in the fridge. You know busy bees "outa sight, outa mind. Time passed and summer came and I still had the apples. I used my mommy "really there but invisible, looking over" vision. This vision comes in most handy when boys do stupid things and mommy's just can't deal with it, so they choose not to for the moment, like ancient grilled cheeses stuffed under bed or the never ending mousey in cupboards hardly ever used. If you don't "see" them they aren't there. I took this approach with the apples. Over time I became curious as to how they deteriorated. Amazingly they did not mush or turn black like other bad foods left in produce drawer, they dehydrated. My experiment is still ongoing, even though everyone pushes for me to "do something with them". I just have to see where they will end up. Hmmmm....3 years and running. My apples have lasted more than some jobs, relationships, some marriages. So I put them in the category of empowered for this reason. Hopefully when it comes time when I decide to remove them, they will be all dehydrated, hard, and pruney like those silly grandma and grandpa apple dolls bought from roadside stands from my childhood.
I just wonder what my next experiment will be.
