Outdoor Wednesday

Since fall is in the air, the weather could soon prevent your going outside. Take this time to get out and enjoy Outdoor Wednesday. Susan, A Southern Daydreamer, and her friends, will delight you with their showings.



These are called muscadines. They are in the grape family from the South with musky fruits grown in small clusters. Georgie is the largest producer of these. However, they are also a native of East Texas.


These lighter, brownish color ones are sometimes called scuppernags. They are a much sweeter variety. Both are used for making jelly and jam. But most of all just plain on eating.


For several years, my family and I have traveled to East Texas to gather these muscadines. The gentleman that has the vines is 86 years young. Honestly, for his age, he gets around and does great. You should be able to see large clusters on these vines, but due to the weather and him not able to keep them pruned enough, they did not have as many this year as usual. The pictures above of the clusters came off the internet.


Last weekend my sister and I went to East Texas for our annual trip. It was not the best of weekends. It rained and rained. However, it did not stop us from going after them. You see my sister is addicted to them.


This is my sister and the owner helping her gather the muscadines.


The nice owner has a old golf cart. Since it was so wet and rainy, he drove (at a rather rapid speed) us into the vines. It was some protection from the elements. He is driving, my sister is in the middle, and I am hanging on the outside wet as a dog.


We were driving along and he saw a nice cluster that we had passed. He puts it into reverse, but just as we got to the muscadines, we shot past and were heading into the vines. I did not know what was happening and neither did he. The harder he tried to stop, the faster we would go. Remember my sister is sitting in the middle. When he started to backup, she braced her foot on the floorboard. At least that what she thought. Instead she was pushing the gas pedal as hard as she could while he was trying to stop. After a few minutes, he realized what was she was doing. I could never tell you or you imagine how funny all this was. When things were back in control, he said at least we had a could laugh and made the day brighter.