Full Moon – Berry Moon Crests

So, strictly speaking, the full moon was on Monday. Late again, late again. None the less, let’s get into it, shall we?
 
I have about a litre of sour cherries frozen in a zip-lock bag in the freezer (that’s on top of a cherry pie and a few cups of cherry-chocolate spread). I regret not picking even more of them but, unlike the serviceberries, these are all from trees in other people’s front yards. Goblin Fruit means that you can’t just take everything, y’know?
 

I’m waiting for the raspberries and blackberries and blueberries to show up, and feeling like I should be out getting as many currants and cherries and gooseberries as are still available. I feel like I’m waisting the season by not spending every minute in the Fruit Mines, if you will.
 
A silly thought, honestly, though I do have rhubarb chutney, tomato sauce(s)[1], and freezer-ready blanched beans on the brain. (Jam is easy and delicious but, in spite of just using it in lieu of sugar in my winter baking, it’s not the most massively useful thing in the long run… And we’re still a ways away – a week or two, certainly – from fruit butter season. I want to put up some more savouries. Two jars of chutney and half a dozen pints of pickles are… not really enough to qualify).
 
As Berry Moon crests (and starts to wain), our home is still… a bit of a catastrophe. It’s looking better than it has – my servant wisely called for back-up[2], so I’ve added vacuuming, sweeping, laundry, dishes (alas), and a little more of The Great Clothing Re-Org of 2013, to my list of Things To Do. It’s slow, but at least it’s going, so that’s good.
On top of this, some horrible person city employee has come and dug up all of my squash and radishes, along with all of someone else’s corn. Those fuckers. 😦 I’m really unhappy about that. 😦 Still, we got to eat most of our radishes, so at least that was something.
 
The second half of berry moon is more social, if you will, than the first half. Waxing Berry Moon was about drawing in, focusing on the maintaining of the hearth and of personal and familial relationships.
Waning Berry Moon is still centred on relationships, but the connections are wider reaching as we turn outwards again in anticipation of Thunder Moon: Think about reconnecting with activist allies, co-religionists, and buddies who meet you for coffee.
In my case, this means leaving the house for social outings – group camping trips, femme poetry readings, sexworker art-performances, kinky discussion groups, and Big Gay movies-in-the-park.
What does it mean for you?
 
 
TTFN,
Meliad the Birch Maiden.
 
 
[1] 20lbs of tomatoes = just shy of 38 cups of cooked tomatoes. That means 20 half-cup jars of balsamic roasted garlic tomato sauce PLUS enough left-over cooked tomatoes to make 12 one-cup jars of plain diced tomatoes (possibly with garlic in them) and six cups of – hopefully spicier than last year – tomato-peach salsa (or preserved bruschetta mix, as the case may be – I can see doing three of each).
 
[2] Officially, stuff like vacuuming and dish-doing are her pervue[3], but she’s under instruction to ask for help when things get overwhelming, because otherwise she just pushes herself until she falls apart. Not good.
 
[3] I handle most of the things – other than Making Coffee – that have to do with acquiring and preparing food. Partly because I like it, and it’s the nature of our relationship that I get to do the things that I enjoy, but also because I’m a work-at-home type and that means I’ve got the face-time and flexibility of schedule to allow for things like making bread and doing home-canning, or running out for groceries in the middle of the day. It helps.