Redcurrant. There are also blackcurrant nearby.

Today is a beautiful Monday. It rained in the morning and was rather chilly for summer, but by the end of the workday a faint sun was shining. I left my umbrella and jacket at work. Perhaps next time it will be sun in the morning and rain in the afternoon. Probably not though, since I already had three other umbrellas there. But you never know.

The temperature inside is just perfect, around 25 degrees Celsius. That is such that I can wear clothes or not as I choose, indoors. Usually in the summer it is entirely too hot, but if not then it quickly becomes chilly. There are not many days as perfect as this.

After the recent rain, the lawns have started growing again. I took the manual lawnmower to one of them, and noticed that the berry bushes were full of ripe berries. Unfortunately, I don’t like them. We had the same type at home, and they were sour. Only edible with heaps of sugar. Or honey, of course. Even with sugar they were still sour, even when they were fully ripe. Much more than strawberries and raspberries. And even those were sourer than the wild ones, which I loved. I could eat lots and lots of wild raspberries, which grew all around wherever there were broken stones. And there were a lot of broken stones in our valley.

But enough of that. I suppose I would be the nearest to harvest these bushes, since I am renting the house, and the landlord has not shown up for a long time now. It will only be a matter of days – this week, probably – before the berries are overripe and start rotting. Actually today would be a good day to harvest them. But that is kind of pointless if I don’t eat them. And despite my general low carbon footprint and stuff (which is mostly by accident anyway), I just know the berries would rot in the fridge even more surely than outside.

Last year some unknown woman harvested the bushes. I think it was one of the neighbors but I am not absolutely sure. I just observed her through the window. Actually I was kind of relieved. Perhaps the landlord – or his mother or grandmother – had told them it was OK. In any case, I don’t think I will go ask my neighbors to harvest the berries. Perhaps the birds will do it if we don’t do anything. Birds need to live too. But with the neighbor having half a dozen cats (or some such) birds are not too frequent flyers around here either.

I honestly have no idea why nearly all cultivated fruits and berries here in Norway are sour. Perhaps Norwegians, except me, like them that way. Given that several of the native berries are sweeter, it is hardly an act of God at least.