Signs of Summer

I went to the grocery store this week and was delighted to see some very important signs of summer. As always in April, the graduate student goes into hiding in order to complete projects and generally gawk at added expenses (three reams of paper? Two spools of cd-rws?) throughout the semester. As the end of the month approaches, however, the mammal comes out of hibernation to witness the arrival of sunshine and natural vitamin D intake. The grocery stores here bear such gifts as strawberries, citrus fruits, and the first inklings of a long watermelon season begin.




The advent of personal-sized everything leads to a personal-sized watermelon craze. They cost the same as a regular watermelon, but are (substantially) smaller than the fifteen to twenty pound mammoths that can land around these parts.



In addition, I managed to procure some Meyer lemons that the grocer was keeping in the back. There was one on the shelf (one?!) but they had an entire carton ripe for the picking in the storage area. I tried one and was pleasantly surprised at their sweetness, but honestly I was expecting something much more sweet in the end. They are sweet enough that they can be eaten as-is with no pucker, but still have that lemon punch.

I'm looking forwards to many months of watermelons. I'm only sad that they're not as readily available in the city as they are in the country--on the back end of a pickup, on the side of the road among the wildflowers.