Spring is Here

It's finally showing signs of spring here in Upstate New York, even though friends from warmer climates have been posting pictures of blossoms for many weeks now. The Ume trees are the first to burst forth (their cousins in Japan have been out for a couple of months now and are already producing fruit.)

Ume are often called a Japanese plum, though they're really in the apricot family. One reason that we planted them was for their fruit. Hard and green, you can't eat them as-is, but packed in salt and red shiso leaves for a few weeks they become the soft, deep-red, tart pickles known as umeboshi. Every year we hope our trees have become mature enough to bear fruit but there's been nothing yet. Maybe this year. Or maybe we'll just have to wait until we go to Japan again to get a new supply.

We're almost fully vaccinated and ready to start traveling again, though cautious enough not to make any full-scale plans yet. We'll just have to see what the summer brings. We were talking the other day about people who claim that they have the freedom to not get vaccinated, and I said,

Free will is a problem that often resolves itself.

I think I have a new aphorism. I'm going to have to find a place in a story to use it.