I have to explain why I am posting in English. This is because this post is a feedback to mrdanbaird, who recently posted on “A conscious search for blackberries” in Das Bloggen. His post was very much appreciated, including by me, and I was surprised by the size of blackberries shown in the pictures. I decided to show the difference to Brazilian blackberries, which are smaller and not so sweet (of course this last particularity cannot be appreciated in a blog – but who knows? perhaps one day this will be possible).

I went for a walk yesterday evening, around 5 pm, in the neighbourhood where I leave. After walking half a block, I found a very big blackberry tree (usually this tree is not so big here), filled with blackberries. I took some pictures, but I am not a good photographer, and the pictures were not good. The street near to the blackberry tree was covered by rather large smashed blackberries. I wondered the reason why the berries were big, and a possible explanation is because the tree was in a garden and certainly under good care. Since this season has been particularly dry in Brazil, and we haven’t seen a drop of rain during the last 30 days, or even more, I was surprised with the size of those blackberries. Walking an additional block, I found another blackberry tree, and the pictures I took were not so bad.

Most blackberries are not yet ripe enough to be eaten. But the trees are filled with these small berries, a nice mixture of colours with the leaves, though the contrast is nicer when the fruits are completely ripe.

Just beside this second blackberry tree there is a small river. Such small rivers here in Brazil are called “córregos”. It is nice to have a córrego near to home because the water attracts birds and sometimes other small animals, as possums and egrets. And it makes a nice ensemble of plants around the wet area.

Going further away, I took a picture of the landscape, since the light was going down, putting the colours in evidence.

Further uphill, there is a small charming grove, plenty of Brazilian trees. An ecological trail has been made by people leaving around, who think that it is important for neighbourhood foreigners and children to visit and be in contact with true Brazilian tree species. The photo shows how dry is the land.

Going further uphill, there is another, but larger and greener, grove. Until three years ago this area was part of a farm, but now there are several new houses being constructed around. I don’t show the houses because I don’t like them; I prefer the trees. This is a very nice place to walk with dogs. There are almost no cars, specially sunday afternoons when people like to be at home, watching soccer games.

I turned back downhill only one block before entering in a non-paved way where the farm still is. The tree shows a somewhat dramatic scene, and I tried to identify the birds on the top of the trees, but I couldn’t. They were too far from me.

By the end of my walk I reached the middle of the farm. The area has been cleaned some time ago, and it looks a SciFi scenario to me. Usually the herb is bigger. During the summer, it is cool to come to this farm in the morning with dogs, when the herb is still wet and the dogs like very much running and running as crazy. It is possible to see the Eucaliptus on the top of the hill.

Here is a movie filmed in this same area, some years ago. As you can see, the dogs love coming. The land was dry as well but the herb is bigger, and the dogs love going into it. The movie is not fantastic, since it was our first trial with the camera.

I then went back home. The temperature has been nice during the last days, much nicer than 10 days ago when we’ve had pretty cold days. The surroundings were quiet, and I did walk listnening the wind and the birds calming down as the light was diminishing. I was wondering why some people prefer buying blackberries than going to search for the fruits in the trees. It is a nice occasion to walk together, watching around, enjoying the light. Unfortunately my wife was busy at home, preparing her classes. The dogs could not come with me, because one of them was recovering from a small surgery. It was a good end of a sunday before starting a new week of work.

I’ll have to wait until the next weekend to find riper blackberries.

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