I looked high and low for a replacement pair of work sandals. I finally found a pair my size on sale about an hour’s drive from here. It was the last pair they had in stock. I tried to call them, to ensure the pair would be there if we drove all that way to pick them up, but could only get an answering machine. So I paid for shipping and ordered them to be delivered.
Our house number is not only weird, in the summer you can’t see it from the road. We are not willing to remove our trees to make the house number visible. I do write notes for the delivery drivers, and most can find the house, most but not all.
I knew the shoes were out for delivery today. Just by luck I happened to be at the front door when the delivery truck drove slowly down the street looking for us. I waved, the driver looked at me and drove by. I went out the end of the driveway and waited for the driver to make a second pass. I flagged them down. The shoes were delivered safely.
We have been talking about putting our house number out on a post in front of the house, out by the road. This is not an easy project. We decided that we have to see what we are buying, as we don’t want plastic junk that won’t last. Slowly we are devising a plan to make an address sign to mount on a fence t-post. This will take some doing, and it might not be pretty.
The sign will make it easier for some delivery people, but some will still fail to find us.
Our property is primarily populated with indigenous plant species. There is some grass here and there, but not much. One of the plants that takes up residence here is wild grapes. This summer one of the wild grape plants was quite vigorous, so we created a trellis for it to give it support, and let it do its thing. To our surprise, it produced wild grapes.
Attila picked them and we used the steam juicer to extract the juice. The juice is not sweet, and not sour. It tastes like grape juice, and has a very mild pleasant flavour. I would make jelly with this juice, but will not because we don’t eat sugary things much anymore. We will drink it as is, or perhaps I will make gummies with it.
We like making use of the plants that decide to live here with us. Last year a volunteer crabapple tree produced quite a few crabapples. I made crabapple butter with them, it is delicious
Worldly
Weather
25°C
Date: 3:00 PM EDT Monday 15 September 2025
Condition: Partly Cloudy
Pressure: 102.5 kPa
Tendency: Falling
Temperature: 23.0°C
Dew point: 13.0°C
Humidity: 53%
Wind: SSE 16 km/h
Humidex: 27
Visibility: 24 km
Quote
“The multitude of books is making us ignorant.”
Voltaire
1694 – 1778
This statement intrigues me. I wish I could grasp the full context of it, but time and space allow only for speculation. I wonder if the phenomenon described is similar in any way to what we are seeing with the internet and social media. I wonder if this observation had any relationship to the conditions that led to the French Revolution that occurred a decade after Voltaire’s death.
Maggie, where I live, there are requirements for reflective house numbers which can easily be seen from the road so emergency services can readily find the location in question. Those numbers can be on the side of a curbside mailbox or on a separate pole.
Here, the signs can be purchased from the local fire departments. They’re designed to be attached to simple metal poles with holes in them (like metal fence posts). While driving the pole can be challenging, the rest is fairly simple. These vertical number signs can also be attached to mailbox poles, if the pole can have holes drilled to receive them.
They’re not pretty, but they do the job quite effectively.
I have no idea how it might work in your world, but it might be worth reaching out to your local emergency services to see if they have a similar program.
Wendy, what a great idea! I will call the municipality to find out what is done here, and see what we can figure out with that. It would be the best solution, even if it isn’t pretty!
Our house number isn’t weird, but the exact same number had also been given to a house parallel to us a few streets over. One of that house’s residents is a “Julie”, a bit similar to our “Julia”. The mail person frequently fails to read the street names and delivers our mail to them. Fortunately they are honest people and let us know when this happens. The kind husband will even deliver our mail to us. Julia tried to tell the mail lady about this, this last time. We hope she understood.
Joan, thank goodness the people at the other address are honest!
We get mail meant for someone around the corner from us, and we always walk it over and put it in their mailbox. I wonder if they ever get mail meant for us, if they do it has not come to our attention, and we have not been aware of any mail missing. We call the post office to let them know about the failed delivery every time. The present mail delivery person is doing a fine job though, no mistakes for the last year or so.
Your wild grapes had me looking up how safe they might be, Maggie. I see there are 3 plants in Canada that look like wild grapes but can be dangerous if eaten. I hope you or Attila are well versed in the differences.
When we got our house, we put our address and a script street name up on our garage, as we were so excited to move in. There are also houses in our neighborhood that have just their number somewhere on the front of their house.
Teri, a very good point about using wild plants for food.
I am confident that what I have harvested are wild grapes. I grew up on a fruit farm, growing grapes and other tender fruits for profit (not a hobby farm). Luckily for me the farm also included acres and acres of bush, which included all kinds of wild plants. We also grew up foraging with our Granny and Grandpa, so quite a bit of experience there, and knowledge that I take for granted.
I had a look at the look a-likes, and I agree with you that foraging is something to undertake with extreme caution.
The porcelain-berry is something I would never mistake for wild grapes, they look completely different to me. I have never seen this plant.
https://extension.umd.edu/resource/invasives-your-woodland-porcelain-berry-updated-2025/
The moonseed (Menispermum canadense) does look more like a wild grape, but I’ve never seen this plant before either. The clusters have blooms, which wild grapes do not. Luckily it tastes nothing like a grape, the taste is described as “rank”, so one would probably not swallow this. However one might use the leaves, also toxic, in cooking, so best to be aware. The seeds are completely different than those of wild grape, moon shaped, so checking the seeds will identify this plant.
https://mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/field-guide/common-moonseed
The Virginia Creeper is another look a-like plant. I am familiar with this plant, we have them here at Mist Cottage and the the Camp, I have no trouble distinguishing this plant from wild grapes. Although the leaves are somewhat similar, the fruit does not look like wild grapes to me, but I could see the confusion if one were unfamiliar.
https://loudounwildlife.org/2009/10/virginia-creeper/
For a general review with pictures:
https://foragerchef.com/a-vine-with-vigour-wild-grapes/
We are looking at the street signs with street and number, our number is on the house already, large and easy to see, but it does not do the job.