Ruminating

[robby]

Last night, while harvesting bush beans, I had a minor revelation. When you first start picking, everything seems a chaotic jumble. After a minute, the brain and eyes shift, and it's suddenly very easy and clear to see and pick efficiently. I've had the same experience picking almonds. My guess is that a very basic part of the primate brain kicks in which allows you to see and focus on picking lots of food effectively. It's sort of magical when suddenly you can see and pick so well. The Buddhists might call it being completely in the present.

There is a similar primitive reflex when you suddenly happen upon a snake. There is a circuit that sees and causes you to react outside the deliberate mind.

I ate my one and only plum for this year. It was an elephant heart, and I'm not sure if it started on the tree here, or at the nursery. I'll next have lots of prickly pears ready to eat, starting very soon.

The first planting of winter squash is yielding exceptionally well. I picked one for dinner tonight, and I have at least seven that will be for winter storage.

I finished a lot of canning, both beans and tomatoes, and I'm building up the larder.

Comments

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

Pattern recognition! I used to experience that same phenomenon when I was collecting arrowheads in La Liendre.

[robby.livejournal.com]

There's also an element of reaching through the complex tangles and coming back with the prize, multiplied times hundreds and you have ten pounds of beans, or a bushel of almonds. It feels very basic, like a genetic memory of primates. I tried to google it, but modern intelligentsia doesn't do farm labor.