It's Going to be a Hard Winter!

 So says the man who lives with me every time I complain about the fructiferous Chinese Dogwood tree that grows beside our porch.  It's been dropping its pink fruit in historical abundance!  Record plenitude!

It's a bumper crop!

A copious yield!

The numbers, I'm afraid, are driving me nuts!

For you see, Reader Dear, these little balls (they look like cherries with warts) are easily squashed.  Stepping on them, they are crushed.  Leap now to the blight that is created by one vehicular trip over bounteous amounts on the driveway, gluing their soft and sticky insides to the pavement!

I've kept the broom handy.  In about five minutes I can clear the porch and the driveway both, as long as I get to them before they get overly ripe or are otherwise crushed.  But, ah, Dear Reader, they fall like fall leaves!  Five minutes after my labors it's time to pick up the broom again!

Surprisingly enough, this fruit is edible (I recently discovered)!  If I weren't so busy sweeping, I could bake Dogwood Berry pies and put up Dogwood Berries for the long, hard winter ahead!
(At the very least I'd make fruitcakes out of the fruit that is making a fruitcake out of me!)

 Pink blanket compliments of the Chinese