abandoned_lot_taste_test epitome of incomprehensibility I was walking towards Valois village yesterday and I stopped at the abandoned lot just past the overpass. There are two buildings on it, an abandoned store and a smaller brick building that may have something to do with electricity. More interestingly, there are giant blocks of concrete here and there in the field, remnants of a previous foundation. Most of the lot is a field, overgrown with plants; part of it is a parking lot that people still use, since it's close enough to the stores across the street. A man parked his car and looked at me curiously as I walked out of the vines at the side of the building. I wondered whether he might be waiting for a secret drug rendezvous, but instead he crossed the street to the bank or post office like a boring citizen. I had discovered something among the vines. No, not drugs. Wild grapes, bunches of small blue grapes, and I was happy because I had not thought to see them in this area. I'd discovered some last year when I was living in Ontario and I'd taken a photo of them, not daring to taste any because I didn't know what they were: they looked like blueberries but lighter, they were in bunches (bunches!), they had what looked like a powdered skin... I was quite perplexed until I showed my camera to the resident landowners and they assured me I was looking at blue grapes, quite common in the environs of Niagara. Anyway. I tasted a Quebec-abandoned-lot grape, just to assure myself it was the real thing. It was, but very sour; the things won't be ripe until late September, by which time they may be rotten or eaten by various little animals, like the apples on our apple tree usually are. Oh. And I saw a mouse. And a mourning dove (grey-rose feathers, plump like a pigeon). And some wild cherries in the bargain, also sour. And then I went across the street to the post office or bank like a normal boring citizen. 130901 ... e_o_i The two buildings there were demolished this past fall. Sadly, most of the plants were destroyed as well - bye bye grapevines and chokecherry trees. Only the two taller trees were left. 170330 what's it to you? who go blather from