Those are the last of our raspberries in the garden. I have been surprised at how many are still hanging on the bushes, as they're usually long gone by this time of year. These last few are also the biggest of this summer's crop, so whatever I did to create these "late season" berries, I should do again. I think it has something to do with when and how I pruned the bushes; I need to do a little research on that.

In addition to raspberries, we've got some blackberries that are just about ready, and the pears, plums and apples are starting to fall from the trees, too. September has been really mild so far, so we're hoping the fruit will stay on the trees long enough to get bigger and tastier. Often, the nights in September start to get very cold quite early in the month but that hasn't happened yet---yeah!---and that should allow the fruit to hang on at least another week.

I really enjoy being out in the garden this time of year, picking fruit and thinking about what to do with all of it. I can tell I've been watching too much Little Britain because yesterday I was wandering around with my bucket of berries and apples thinking, "Yes, I'm a lady and this is a lady thing to do. I like to do lady things." Just like Emily Howard...



Speaking of lady things, I recently read an article about the winter Olympics in a March edition of The New Yorker and was shocked to discover that the International Olympic Committee doesn't believe ski jumping is at all a lady thing. Did you know that women have never competed in the ski jumping contest in the Olympics? According to Nick Paumgarten, who wrote the article, "It's the lone male-only sport in the Winter Games."

I'm not a huge fan of the Olympics, summer or winter, so always just end up a casual observer of the sports I think are fun to watch (figure skating, gymnastics, diving, baseball, hockey) or happen to be on the telly when I'm eating dinner (here in Norway, that was the biathlon this year, evening after evening after evening; a freak coincidence of Canadian timing, I think). But, you know, now that I think about it, I never have seen a woman ski jumper in the Olympics. Or anywhere else, really, although I know they exist because of the huge controversy here this year over who jumped and when at the grand opening of the new ski jump at Holmenkollen.

Paumgarten writes that women have long been discriminated against in this sport and that weird prejudices continue to this day. "The president of the International Ski Federation, or FIS, speculated that jumping could harm a woman's uterus, and subsequently reiterated that it 'seems not to be appropriate for ladies from a medical point of view.'" My jaw dropped upon reading that, since it's such a load of bullshit it's hard to believe anyone with any sort of education would actually say such a thing.

Anyway, women have been ski jumping---and doing it well---for over 100 years without anyone losing a uterus. Again from Paumgarten: "Prior to the 2010 Games, the record holder on the Olympic jump at Whistler, the resort north of Vancouver where many of the skiing events took place, was a woman named Lindsey Van (not Vonn)." He goes on to contend that "The participation of women would threaten jumping's virile self-image and dilute the pool of money for prizes and endorsements."

Isn't that outrageous? I'm outraged. I think ski jumping should absolutely be a lady thing that ladies do with other ladies. I'm certain Emily Howard would agree!