The Fruits of Wally's Labors

We've hit blackberry season again. This is already the second batch I've picked from my vines.Yes, it is probably far earlier in my yard than around your area of the world, but it is a bit later than last year. Last year, they were ready in early May and I couldn't manage to pick a single one of them. Wally died in early April last year and the blackberry bush is one of his many gifts to my household.

For those of you who haven't already heard a dozen stories, Wally was our next door neighbor. He was a transplanted Texas boy that married into one of the founding families of Mesa, and thus the Mormon faith. His yard, as of today, still has 2 kinds of blackberries, sweet garlic, 3 kinds of aloe, a pecan tree, an orange tree, and flowers all along the front. He had a greenhouse, a hydroponic set up for his tomatoes, a bunch of funny stories and a great, big laugh. He was 88 when he died. His wife, who moved in with her kids across town after he died, survived him by a little over a year.

I've been in the house next door - that I still think of as "theirs" - a lot over the last few weeks to show it to potential renters. (Their kids are in charge of the deal, but I have a set of keys so they don't have to drive out every time.) The first time I went in, I was surprised to find how sad I still was to have them gone. But I guess I've come to terms with it a bit. At least enough to eat my blackberries,

The blackberry bushes were one of Wally's first presents to me. Before I even knew HTH, Wally would sometimes lean over the back yard wall and talk to me & my dog. In true, Texan good ole boy fashion, he had Tamar charmed immediately and me laughing at his crazy stories every time. One spring I was admiring his blackberry bushes and telling him stories of 5 gallon ice cream buckets that never got more than half full when I was picking blackberries. The next spring, I had a mysterious bush growing against my wall that had blackberries on it the year after that. It was two more years before Wally finally confessed to throwing ripe blackberries over the wall so that I could have a bramble of my own.

This weekend the new neighbors are moving in next door. Shawn is a plumber who does side work - a good kind of neighbor to have - who has plans to do some work on the place. Wally would thoroughly approve of him. But the yard will be managed by the landscaper across the street. He is a nice guy, but I don't think he is southern enough to approve of all of the blackberry bushes. I suspect this will be the last summer they survive on that side of the wall. But over here, I set up a drip system for my bramble. They should survive many a year - regardless of the crazy Phoenix sun - and give us a very concrete way every summer to enjoy the fruits of Wally's labors.