It's late August. As always I took time to remember my favorite part of the end of summer. It seemed almost as though kids that grew up in Rural Alaska got an exempt card from nature from feeling the end of summer blues. Waiting for the salmonberries to become ripe and ready for the picking was the highlight of the year. At least for me. These berries have a soft and gentle sweetness that you just can't adequately describe with words, with just a little tart bite at the end, similar to a raspberry.
So I decided to google these berries. Search after search I kept finding information on something similar to this berry, but it just wasn't the same. When I looked up salmonberries I kept finding picture after picture of a berry that was similar in color to what I knew as a salmonberry, but it was a high bush berry.

This ^ is what my searches kept coming up with. I kept thinking that can't be right. Thats not what I call a salmonberry. So I did a little searching. This high bush berry is actually a salmon berry. The berry I knew grows only a few inches off the ground. 

This one right here ^, the one I grew up calling a salmonberry is known to the rest of the world as a cloudberry. How strange is that? I had also always just assumed that since no one I ever came in contact with had ever heard of this berry that it must also be only native to Alaska and Canada. I was wrong about that too. Rubus Chamaemour grows in several cold places all over the world. In Alaska and Canada (which I already knew) some places in Maine, Minnesota and a few other northern states on the east coast, Russia, Norway, Finland, Northern most parts of Asia and even occasionally in the northern parts of England. It literally grows all over the world, at least the northern regions of the world. 

It is highly sought after and is considered a delicacy in every part of the world it grows in. I wonder if the people that covet this berry know how many places it actually grows in. I am guessing, like me, they probably don't and just assume it is native to their area. The cloudberry also goes by these common names, bakeapple (in Atlantic Canada), Knotberry and Knoutberry (in England) Averin and Evron (in Scotland).

Doing all this research on my favorite berry has made me want them even more. Which makes me glad that I will be in Maine in a few short weeks. I hope I can find a place that has them, or at the very least has a jam or some other preserve made from them. Dear Google, thank you. I got schooled.

~Notti by Nature

The Mascot Race!

One of my favorite things about going to roller derby is some of the silly things that go on there. This was at one of the Hard Knox Roller Girls bouts in Knoxville, TN. Knuckles is the dog that won the race, he is one of the mascots for HKRG. Sphere this is the other mascot. The bear is Chilly and he is the mascot for the Knoxville Ice Bears, which is a hockey team. I don't know what the sharks name is if he has one but thats a mascot for the Ripley's Aquarium in Gatlinburg, TN. I have been out there. I'd say that is one of the best aquariums I have ever been to. I know the bee is a mascot for some radio station in knoxville, but I'm not sure which one. This is from a few weeks ago, but I figured I'd post it.
I'm in the Raleigh area in North Carolina right now. I'm excited about seeing the Carolina Rollergirls. I'll probably get some sort of video or at least some pictures when I go to that.

~Notti by Nature

This is an interesting looking building that I came across in Mr.Olive, North Carolina. I thought about tagging it myself, but sometimes I just like to leave things the way I found them. This building is for the locals. It has local character and I didn't want to change it. 

~Notti by Nature

Never Stop Believing. Sometimes I think people need to be reminded of things like these. I'd mainly like people to never stop believing in themselves, but it would be nice if more people believed in humanity. Each one of us can go out every day and do one small act to make the world a little better. 

“I read and walked for miles at night along the beach, writing bad blank verse and searching endlessly for someone wonderful who would step out of the darkness and change my life. It never crossed my mind that that person could be me. ”

Anna Quindlen

I sprayed this in a few different places where I've seen people selling drugs, I'm guessing they probably wont be doing that in those spots until these get covered up. 

Ready to hit the streets. If you are going to be working with spray paint for any extended period of time  you should make sure you have a good respirator mask. You don't want a build up of aerosol mist in your lungs. Short term it can cause nausea, vomiting, head aches and confusion. Long term you can end up with brain damage. Its not as common, but you can also get lung infections and pneumonia. Spray safe, not stupid! ~ Notti By Nature.