The Life and Times of Cherries

Beings as I am in a story telling mood this week (and the week before that) I thought it fitting to end this week with a story.....even though this week hasn't officially ended. I do realize that but for some reason I can't seem to get around to blogging on Saturdays or Sundays as of late so I'm going to call this the end of the week. Savvy?

This story is about the cherries that grow on our cherry trees in our yard. Some of you may wonder what in the world does one do with so many cherries. Well, I am going to tell you! So pop some popcorn, grab a box of tissues, and sit back and enjoy this story........a tragedy of sorts......about the Life and Times of Cherries.



Once upon a time there was a cherry tree. A big beautiful cherry tree. As the cherry tree grew and grew over the years its mommy would read "The Giving Tree" to it. The cherry tree loved this book and wanted to be just like the tree in "The Giving Tree". When spring came this year it reached out its branches turning them just so, so the sun could reach them and it burst forth in blossom. The tree blossomed like it had never done before. As the blossoms turned to fruit, never had this cherry tree been so laden. The branches were so heavy with fruit that the cherry tree could no longer hold them aloft and high but rested them on the ground. As in all cases of giving, sacrifices were made and some of the lovely cherry tree branches broke under the strain of all the fruit it was carrying.




Fruit it was carrying for a family that the cherry tree loved dearly and the family loved dearly in return. The natives in this family hurriedly tried to gather the cherries off of the branches to help the tree with its heavy load rejoicing and appreciating the trees bounteous offerings.




As the natives picked the cherries they laughed and talked with each other, climbing higher and higher up into the cherry trees branches and listened to books on CD. The cherry tree laughed with the natives and once again with tired heavy branches unburdened lifted them off of the ground.




As the natives brought in buckets and buckets of cherries their tired sickly mother, who is actually a beautiful queen under a very wicked aging demented spell (you should see her in real life! She's tall, has thick straight beautiful hair, and a body to die for.......sorry, I digress) ahem...the natives brought their bent over haggy mother (CUZ SHE'S UNDER AN EVIL SPELL CALLED LIFE AND THE AGING PROCESS) the buckets of cherries to wash and de-stem.



After she would spend way too many long hours hunched (cuz she's under an evil wicked spell that makes her back all hunchy) over the kitchen sink washing the cherries she put them into this contraption that would take out the seeds. The haggy baggy mom (who yearns for the day when this evil spell will be taken from her) was a hard task master and even made her babies work slaving away all day cutting out the innards of the cherries.



As the day wore on (day meaning Monday) evening came upon the natives and still their wretched mother made them help her in the kitchen blasting cherry seeds and juice from one end of the kitchen to the other as she stooped further and further over with fatigue yet not willing to let anyone quit. The cherry tree had given in abundance and the hag of a bag of a mother would not let it's gifts go in vain or be wasted.




The cherries after being disemboweled were placed into baggies to be frozen and later brought out to delight the taste buds in delicacies like ice cream, smoothies, muffins, cakes, and cookies........




and placed in the food dehydrator where later they'd be eaten by the handfuls or sprinkled on top of salads or cereals. Finally, after many gruelling hours, the mother let the natives go to bed where she soon after fell into an exhausted sleep.




The next morning (Tuesday) the poor sap of a mother roused the natives out of bed and another day of cherries commenced. Again the natives climbed the cherry tree relieving it of its offerings and again, the mother hunched over the kitchen sink washing and sorting the cherries. Today, they would make the cherries into syrup and like yesterday, the mother made even her babies help. Hour after hour the baby native sat plunging the cherries down and hour after hour he cranked with his other little arm.



Even the family dog was not allowed to rest. She had the arduous task of keeping the floors clean even if it meant that her beautiful pristine white coat would be splattered with cherry juice. No dog worked harder and no dog ever came away with such a hair dye. Till one o'clock in the morning the mother and her natives worked.....making and canning bottle after bottle of cherry syrup.











Wednesday came........and here is where our story turns tragic.......gallons and gallons of cherry syrup and shattered glass. Do you have out your tissues yet? For the mother in this story is still crying..........



And the guilty party?




Exhausted after all his hard work..........THE END!

Moral of the story: A neighbor of mine once told me, "Don't get angry, get out your camera".

2nd Moral of the story: When one spends over an hour cleaning up sticky cherry juice and shattered glass that goes clear across the kitchen and into all adjoining rooms and several feet up the walls......they have time to contemplate that, "it could always be worse" and was very grateful that when her baby by mistake tipped over the kitchen table with all of the finished jars of cherry syrup on it that he himself did not fall off into the mess and into all of that broken glass which would have been very very bad.......and we'll leave it at that and won't go into why he was climbing on the table in the first place because that would be pointless asking a monkey why he climbs..........