summer gems

this is my season -- foodwise. i can’t love stifling summer days like today, but i am a sucker for fruits. there have been more and more fruits to show up to attract me as the summer sunshine ripens them since late may. i love fruits to behold, too. so i call fruits gems. they are glorious and absolutely gorgeous.
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when i have a routine walk in the park my eyes are darting around to find some fruits, whether or not they are edible, to pick up. in my park, although there are many trees bearing juicy fruits such as mulberries, plums and japanese apricots, signs warn people, saying: do not pick fruits. they are for children’s nature observation, besides, picking fruits can hurt the trees. fair enough. they are also for birds and insects, then go back to the earth when rotten, righ? i, as a good citizen, pick no fruits from the branches. instead, i pick up some before going bad just for looking at them at home.

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meanwhile, there are several fruits i cannot see around europe. so i would like to show you some you may not familiar with: the first one is やまもも yamamomo (japanese bayberry: myrica rubra) growing in the park. they are so cute to look at. some regions sell its jam and liquor as local specialities; the second one ぐみ gumi (silverberry: elaeagnus). this, in fact, was my very first fruit i recognised the fact that a tree bears fruits as a kid. and the memory of its tannic taste will never escape me. lastly, びわ biwa (loquat: eriobotrya japonica). it is widely available to buy, though biwa season is short. i quite like its soft but light crunchy texture of the flesh.

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incidentally, i’ve noticed that fresh apricots are not always easy to get. so, my mother orders a packet with co-op every year for me. she, who is not really a fruit-lover, likes apricots out of her sentiment. we once had a big apricot tree in our family garden and she made apricot jam every year. apricot jam is still my most favourite jam, by the way. spreading a generous spoonful of bonne maman apricot preserve and nutella on a toasted slice of sonnenblumenbrot (german sunflower seed bread and i can’t get it in osaka, unfortunately) can bring me a happy morning. for fresh apricots, i love having them with yogurt the best.
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pic 1 japanese bayberries (from my local park)
pic 2 mulberries (from my local park)
pic 3 silverberries (from a hedge nearby)
pic 4 plums and japanese apricots (from my local park)
pic 5, 6 loquats (from my local super market)
pic 7, 8, 9 apricots (from co-op)

ps
... hope you don’t mind me heaving a sigh of grief here. you know what, after the exciting news i received last week, i got the worst news on wednesday. that’s life, isn’t it? but, why is this world so unfair to good people? i’ve been feeling as if i am coming to being drowned or suffocated deep in sadness since then. cancer has returned to my brother. this is not the end of the world for him, of course, yet he has to fight it forever and i know how devastating this blow can be. as for me, i am trying to shake off this feeling ... by looking for something really funny just like these two gentlemen: mr. obama and m. sarkozy.