How high's the water mama? High enough to make the "naked ladies" smile.

In the South, this beautiful flower was called a surprise lily by both our mothers.

We were surprised earlier this week when one of our friends saw a picture posted on Facebook and asked if it was a "naked lady."
We blushed at the suggestion.
Here is the picture we posted:

We looked beyond Megan to see if Dwain had accidentally captured a naked lady in the background at the Newton County Courthouse in Jasper, Arkansas. Nope, just these beautiful surprise lilies, and some tourists wandering around with cameras. But none of them were naked.

Wikipedia describes our surprise lily as: "Lycoris squamigera is a plant in the amaryllis family, Amaryllidaceae, subfamily Amaryllidoideae. It is also sometimes referred to as naked ladies." I guess they got that name because they're so lovely with long, bare (naked) stems."

And as a woman boasted on Seinfeld: "They are real. And they are spectacular."

Surprise lilies line our front porch and if you could see past the circle driveway, the long-stemmed beauties line our country driveway. These are the prettiest the summer flowers have been in the 24 years we've lived together.

Talk about a surprise, these rain showers, some heavy, and cool temperatures have been a real surprise this July. We haven't even reached 100 degrees. We've barely gotten into the 90s.

We think the cool temperatures from our vacation rode back home with us.

A couple of weeks ago, we were sitting on the front porch, when the cool temperatures enticed us to head out on a Sunday afternoon drive and explore dirt roads.

The sun was warm, and the sky was a feathery blue. We couldn't stay in the house.

Megan has a summertime rule: If you see water, you have to get out and wade, pick up rocks and see if crawdads are hiding underneath them.

That afternoon, dragonflies were busy skimming the water looking for whatever they eat. It must have been a great buffet. We saw a lot of them, and they seemed pretty happy.

Time for a game of "king of the mountain."

Uh-oh, looks like we're about to play suicide and see which one backs off the pedal first.

Megan denies, vehemently, that she was responsible for burning these circles in the pavement. What's the vote?

We're lucky we live in such a place.
Megan and Dwain

Summer rain taps at my window
West wind soft as a sweet dream
My love warm as the sunshine
Sittin' here my me, she's here by me.
Summer Rain - James Hendricks

'Please,' Brer Rabbit pleaded, 'Don't throw me in the blackberry bush!'

 A popular old Southern tale involves the simple psychological manipulation of Brer Fox by Brer Rabbit.
How? A blackberry patch is the plot.
It's as simple as why Dr. Bill Baker returned again and again to Gilbert, Arkansas. He said people in society say: "Every rabbit has his briar patch."

Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Dwain is already pricked by stickers on these "tame" blackberry plants. These plants may be tame, but they're still armed with sharp briars ... just like the briars where Brer Rabbit landed.

What makes these blackberry canes "tame" is the size and number of berries per plant. Each of these blackberries is as big as our thumbs, and so ripe they literally pop off the vine.

These plants originated with Megan's Dad, Clinton Tinkle.
He gave Dwain's Mom, Mattie Lair, a few of the canes, and they've thrived behind her house.
This year, she let us pick the berries.

What can we make with a gallon of fresh blackberries? And another gallon? And another gallon? And ...

Yum! Yum! Yum! Megan's just taken a hot blackberry cobbler out of the oven.

Can you smell the aroma, served in heirloom berry bowls with ice cream and whipped cream.

Where is the cherry on top?
Sorry, we don't want that taste to interfere with the blackberries.

Mmmmmm! Here are our main ingredients for blackberry jam: 8 cups of fresh blackberry juice, minus seeds, and Blackberry Brandy.

We'll add some No-Sugar Pectin and artificial sweetener to the bubbling juice, then fill and seal 8 half-pints with No-Sugar added Blackberry Jam.

In 10 minutes, these half-pints of Blackberry Jam will be finished processing and ready to store. Maybe we won't eat all of them this summer.  We have to save two for the fair.

 
If you're not familiar with Brer Rabbit and Brer Fox, the plot involves a rabbit that constantly pesters and belittles a fox.
Finally, Brer Fox catches Brer Rabbit.
Brer Rabbit begs Brer Fox to roast him, hang him, drown him, skin him, cut off his legs. And after each suggestion pleads: "Don't throw me in the blackberry bush!"
At that point, Brer Fox flung Brer Rabbit deep into the blackberry patch.
"Ouch! Oow! Ouch!" Then the blackberry patch fell silent.
A few minutes later, Brer Fox heard a scuffling sound at the other end of the briar patch, and Brer Rabbit scrambled out of the bush.
Remember what Dr. Baker told us years ago?
“Born and bred in the briar patch, that’s me,” laughed Brer Rabbit. “I told you not to throw me there. In all the world, that’s the place I love best!” 

The next berries to ripen will be a different variety of "tame blackberries." They're big and juicy, but the plants don't have briars.

Mmmmm, we love summer.
Dwain and Megan