Weekend Snapshots

The town I live in held its annual Berry Beat Festival today. Actually all this weekend. In this town alone berry harvesting accounts for 25% of our annual income from agriculture. There are at least 5000 acres of berries planted here.

These are just a couple of snapshots I took today, just straight out of the camera photos. The ladies of the Red Hat Society were all present today, very colourful and festive in thier purple dresses and red hats. It reminds me of the poem I read a long time ago, When I Grow Old I Shall Wear Purple.

Here is one of the hats, festively done up with heart shaped Strawberries.

When I am Old

I will wear Purple!

When I am an old woman,

I shall wear purple - -

With a red hat which doesn't go,

and doesn't suit me.

And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves and satin sandles,

And say we've no money for butter.

I shall sit down on the pavement when I'm tired

and gobble up samples in shops

and press alarm bells

and run with my stick along public railings,

and make up for the sobriety of my youth.

I shall go out in my slippers in the rain

and pick flowers in other people's gardens

and learn to spit!

You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat

and eat three pounds of sausages at a go,

or only bread and pickles for a week,

and hoard pens and pencils

and beermats and things in boxes.

But now we must have clothes that keep us dry,

and pay our rent

and not swear in the street,

and set a good example for the children.

We must have friends to dinner

and read the papers.

But maybe I ought to practice a little now?

So people who know me

are not too shocked and surprised

when suddenly I am old,

And start to wear purple!
--Jenny Joseph

I have always loved this poem, I think because it was a favorite of my Mom's and she has been gone now for many years. It reminds me a bit about her and I feel a twinge of missing her when I think of it. So here it is for you all to read and contemplate.

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