Although spring will not officially arrive until March 20th, I'm afraid it will already be summer when the 20th debuts at our casa since winter this year seemed almost balmy in my perception. Spring for me is time to glance out the windows and see our landscape greening more each passing hour. We gaze across the cove to see the trees budding, in the sunshine of one day - today the service berry tree bloomed white in a matter of hours in our Ozark hills. I stumbled across this bit of information about where the name service berry derived from. Here it is:
Historically, a blooming serviceberry was an indication of important timing, and that is how many of the common names used for this plant came about. One such common name is shadblow, called as such because serviceberries bloom when shad fish have come to spawn. The name serviceberry came about from the colonists. After a long winter, serviceberry was in bloom when the ground had thawed enough and it was a perfect time to bury the dead. So serviceberry meant funeral service.
After reading this tidbit it seems ok to mention we lost a friend this week, Jim Brand. He used to be our weekend lake neighbor until moving to Texas about fifteen years ago. Jim always had a big smile for everyone, a big belly laugh and an endless line of jokes he could tell and make everyone laugh till they cried. I remember he would take his upper teeth out and put them back in upside down and do "Hey Vern!" jokes for hours. Rest in peace dear friend.
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| Grandson Nicholas |
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| Bowl of perfection |
In Bill's case, the crappie king, spring means keeping track of the water temperature, he also watches for visual changes in the landscape to know the best times to start testing the waters for fishing. Crappie is the only fish he cares to catch and the only fish he truly cares to eat. Crappie are a member of the sun fish family and are known by many different names, depending where you are catching them. Other interesting names for this delicate tasting fish are: speckled perch, goggleye, paper mouth, white perch, and my favorite - Sac-a-lait. Normally he has relied on advice from his favorite past fishing partner, his mom. Zelma always believed when the red bud and the dogwood trees were blooming the fish aught to be biting! One knows when the service berry blooms, the dogwood and red bud blooming are shortly behind. However, this year all bets are off! The service berry just bloomed today, probably a couple of weeks early and the white perch have already started biting! As I finish this the crappie king has arrived and my nose tells me he has been successful!
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| Family Operation |
