moonvoice | [PotD] Rushed.

Pia: 'Crap, I haven't done my photo of the day yet!'
Glen: 'We have to leave!'
Pia: 'Quick, Putu, what can I do for my photo of the day!'
Putu: [picks up lemon] 'What about this?'
Pia: 'Fuck it, that'll do, the lighting is terrible, whatever, okay, done! Let's go!'

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

silverjackal

That's actually a very nice lemon. I *like* lemons, and what we get here typically isn't very good. So it's not a bad "photo of the day" at all. :)

From:

moonvoice

It's an okay lemon, we get better ones here, but I think we're spoiled since I've never had much cause to think of how difficult lemons are to find in cold climes. *blush* When we grew up, our neighbours had a lemon tree and the branches just draped over our fence and we picked them whenever we want. And in my parent's house now, it's the same deal - nextdoor neighbour with a tree, and we can pick the ones on our side because there's just too many. A lot of people in older or more established gardens just throw a lemon tree in the garden and with very little care end up with a significantly tall tree that provides shade, attracts birds and offers fruit.

We are a spoiled country when it comes to growing citrus. Even when we were kids, Mum grew a mandarin and a navel orange tree in the backyard so we could have our own fruit (though I always preferred tiny mandarins over the huge ones from the tree...)

*sends you all the citrus*

From:

silverjackal

You can always buy citrus of some sort here, it's just abysmal in quality typically. :( I'm not joking about loving lemons -- as a child I ate them like one would oranges, fresh from the tree. The sweeter varieties taste like oranges at the very heart, too. If I could I'd grow a pomegranate tree, and a lemon tree. Actually, I could likely grow both here, carefully shielded in a green house, but the poor things would never thrive or set fruit. And figs. I would like a fig tree also! Who knows, maybe when I retire I will go home, assuming the whole world has not gone mad by then. Buy a little cottage in some remote village, and give myself over to gardening and bird watching and dog walking. Not a bad future, yes? :)

From:

moonvoice

With quality - is it a size thing? Or a taste thing? Or do they just not last very long? Or some combination of all three? We sometimes suffer from 'bland oranges' during a bad season, and the type of lemon determines how sweet it is. I used to eat lemons raw, but the kind we more commonly get in supermarkets are less sweet and more acidic, and meyers are less common here overall.

Figs grow very well here, one of those 'oh that, we planted it and didn't care about it and now - figs!' The benefit of a classic Mediterranean climate is that all of those classical 'Mediterranean' foods grow easily here. I know a few people who use olive trees as hedges, with the added benefit of fresh olives every year...

Makes me wish I liked olives!

And your idea of retirement sounds lovely! :D

From:

silverjackal

It's a combination of all three of the factors you list re: fruit quality. Sometimes the fruit is too small, sometimes lacking in flavour (entirely, in some cases, so it's like you didn't eat what you thought you did), sometimes the texture is affected (too hard, too mushy, too watery, not at all juicy, sometimes woody). Essentially everything is (1) commercial varieties, which are often inferior because they've been bred for uniform appearance and shelf life, not flavour and (2) picked far, *far* too green. While some of this is a function of location (so that the more tropical things have been shipped from very far away indeed), some of it is also just market forces. If I drive a couple of hours west in late summer here I have access to all manner of good fruit, apples in particular, but what we get in the market tends to be scrap in spite of the fact that really good fruit is being grown here in the country. One upside -- lately we're getting a great deal of fruit from Chile, and sometimes Peru, etc. and the South American stuff is comparatively excellent. It's not citrus, though, that tends to come from the U.S. and is the same old dross.

My idea of retirement is fairly fixed -- I know what I would like, the only question is the details of execution. :)

From:

sabr

hahaha, this is soooo me. SO SO SO me.

From:

moonvoice

Heh. I have like, good days and 'quick, make something up!' days. Sadly, the latter tend to outweight the former. Though, sometimes that's where my happiest accidents come from.

From:

bodlon

Agreed. That's an excellent lemon.

(Also, hello. I am back after falling off the Internet.)

From:

moonvoice

Hello! What's it like being back on the internet after having fallen off it for a while?

From:

bodlon

Shiny! Disorienting. Full of interesting stuff.

And, honestly, I'm feeling a little less lonely in the world. I went without a lot of really interesting people for a few months. I don't think I really enjoyed that much.

From:

smw

It's... beautiful.

I say with all solemnity.

From:

moonvoice

Hehehehe.

From:

fadedwings

I totally have those days. It is a very nice lemon though :)

From:

moonvoice

Good lemon, good hand modelling the lemon; yay for unexpected shots! Ironically, I think this has garnered the most comments of all of my 'photos of the day' for this year so far. :D