Sweet Victory in the Garden

At last sweet victory is mine.   In preparation for the deforestation festival, the city likes to cut down the blackberry patch in my alley each year   The city took what used to be an abandoned lot with heirloom fruit trees, beautiful old lilacs and maples and ninty seven  year old home and completely leveled it.  They did this so they could use the log to park and run heavy machinery on during the sewer upgrade.  The noise and dust was horrible as was the loss of the fruit trees.  Also, I admit that I kind of liked the two old derelict houses, they added some character to the area and blocked our view of the trains, they also probably helped me to get a great price on my home.   I mean when half the houses on a block (3 out of 6)  are derilict  it probably lowers property values.

When the homes and the trees and the lilacs were gone and the sewer project was over, all that was left was an ugly gravel lot.  But the blackberries grew back, so at least we had a bit of a privacy hedge and some nice fruit to eat.  

But then the city decided to start using the lot as a parking area for the deforestation festival and they came to mow down the grass and the blackberries every year.  When a black berry cane gets cut down it takes two years for it to produce fruit again.  Well, two years ago when the city came to raze the lot in preparation for the deforestation festival, I asked them to not mow down the blackberries.   The guy in charge of mowing the lawn was understanding, but he was sure he would get into trouble if he left the berries.  He said he needed permission from the city to not mow them.  Well, I knew that time was short and the berries would be gone before the city would ever give permission.  It wasn't like I could wait until the next city commissioners meeting to plead for my blackberries, the deforestation festival was looming.  What could I do?

I won't say what transpired, or how I achieved it, but I did manage to save the entire blackberry patch that year.  This year I did not fight for it, and they came back and cut half of it down, so next year I may have to fight again.   But for this year, I get to pick blackberries instead of fights and with the rainy summer we are having, the blackberries are big and juicy.