BERRY
WONDER
FULL

My mother was raised on a farm. This gave her a tremendous back yard to play in. However, play was always tempered with learning skills. A kind of education that not many humans get today, unless you join one of those "Survival" schools. So when I was a youngster we would roam far away fields in search of berries.

Strawberries and raspberries grow close to the ground in a bouquet of greenery. We would journey, hunched over, filling little baskets with the scruptious delicacies. Once home again these treasures would become pies, turnovers, crisps, or just placed in a bowl with a dab of ice cream. This is the way it was in the real world before the onset of superstores.

In my childhood adventures as a city girl I recreated these little sojourns by exploring my neighbourhood in a like fashion. Though I never found strawberries and raspberries, I did find lots of other interesting berry looking things. Things that I was admonished never to eat, but what is the word "no" to a youngster except another way of saying "go ahead and try it". It's kind of like "I dare you." So the bush with the little white bubble berries had to be sampled. They were kind of pasty and sour, indeed not delectable, but made a wonderful little explosion when you popped them between your fingers. I can't remember what this bush was, if it made the little white bubbles before or after it bloomed, but the bush grew all over Montreal. There was the Honeysuckle. That one is easy to remember because it was so sweet to suck on. Just the name of this bush was an invite to suck on it. There was a tree called the choke cherry tree. Of course this was an ominous sounding name but included the tantalizing word "cherry". Rumour was that it would kill you to eat those little choke cherrys. But did that stop me. No! I was an idiot child who never listened. Into my mouth goes this little cherry. Oh so bitter it was. It was an intriguing kind of bitter and I ate a few more. Surprise to CG, my adventure pal, I didn't immediately croak on the spot. In fact, this little mighty mouse lived. This little munchkin liked it. CG then tried it but she wasn't so sure she liked it. But after that, every time I passed this tree, I had to sample it's wares. It is easy to remember the way my mouth puckered when I ate it. I was hooked on the bitter fruit. Indeed, as is obvious, I still think about even today.

Below is a map of American casualties in Iraq/Afghanistan. I don't want to spoil our celebration, but I don't want us to forget those who can't.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY U.S.A.

230 years of fine tuning democracy and honing the rights of mankind and womankind alike! There is still a lot more to do, as all are still not equal; but we are lucky to be in this place where we are closer to equality than most other lands in this world. This is a time to celebrate and be proud. I am!