Some of the reasons I love it here

For a little over three hours this morning The C and I and our two hosts wandered the lower half of the farm picking coffee. Despite the difficulty of walking over the rocky and rolling terrain, the work is fairly meditative. A hot sun followed us and obscured the color of the cherries. But with trees holding almost nothing but bright red future cups of coffee deciding which cherries to pick required no brain. A fine morning!

And it got better. As I approached the ohana for our lunch break, ML asked me: "Did you drop some eggs outside your door?" As she said this I remembered the clucking pest that had been nestling underneath the table outside our door, back up against the wall. At the time I'd hoped she'd lay a couple of eggs that could become my breakfast. It turns out I hoped correctly. There on the ground sat 2 little untended eggs. Yum!

My bounty approached spilling over. While lunch heated on the burner I pulled out the juicer and juiced a couple of oranges and grapefruits we'd gotten from other farms and a couple of tangerines picked right outside our window. Since I didn't have as much juice as I wanted, I walked out to the tangerine tree and picked a few more, juggling them for The C's entertainment as I walked back inside. She wasn't impressed with my act, which may have had something to do with the errant tangerine that caromed off her computer's keyboard.

Yup, tough times.

They aren't ripe yet, but I also picked 2 papayas and 5 avocados. Heading back to wintry Portland (it's snowing there today, again??) may hurt a bit.