After recess we went out for ngamanburru (conkerberries--see February blog entry). This time, the bushes were covered with fruit. The landscape is getting pretty dry; we were picking our way between great clumps of yellowing grasses (which left the hem of my dress full of seed heads) to the bushes which could be from three to five feet tall and often grow in tight groups of two or three bushes. An occasional lanky eucalypt of some sort would provide a tiny circle of shade at its base. Some wild passionfruit vines grew over some other small bushes and trees. The ripe passionfruit are no more than an inch in diameter, but the pulp sucked out of the papery yellow husk is sweet!
The blueish-black ripe conkerberries are easy to distinguish from the unripe green ones. They are tiny and sweet. There are some thorns on the bushes, but fairly easy to avoid; I got pricked less than if I'd been picking blackberries for as long.
The cheerfulness of the kids about spending a long time out in the sun (without water) is really amazing for someone who has worked recently with American kids. They didn't get whiney or bored, nor did they complain when it was time to go. They didn't fight over whose bush was whose, nobody got lost, nobody got hurt. It was just a really pleasant outing.
Bittersweet
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Eyal and I always knew that it would be difficult building a family from
two different countries. It is just now, however, that we have to really
put that ...
12 years ago
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