what!

Callicarpa americana, American Beautyberry

     ho man were we ready for a morning like this one.........What!..............about 72F (feels like 69.....just sayin'.....), steady, 5-10mph northeasterly breeze............"fall-tranquil" sounds outside: the faint, occasional, "chips" & "picks" of migrating songbirds moving through the tree tops, against the steady, low-frequency, whirring of crickets........................out here in the isolated bottomland hardwoods of north lafayette parish, in the absence of human-induced sounds, this scene comes at you intensely...............almost an "in-your-face-tranquility"......................yeah, one of those inspiring-beyond-words type things............................................

     main migrant songbirds detected this morning included yellow-throated vireo and summer tanager........the vireos gave an occasional breeding song (a reedy, blurry, "fee-Doo?" ) as they scouted the tops of the hackberries.........the tanagers were moving faster -- all in their incognito, brown-mustard, "traveling plumage," and constantly uttering their mildly-penetrating, "pick-TUCK" calls to keep in touch with one another, filtering southward all the while...........

     american beauty-berry is in full fruit around our place.....looks delicious, eh? and it is delicious -- to birds like thrashers, gray catbird, cardinal, as well as to vireos and tanagers..............................you may have grown up with its colloquial name, "french mulberry"................ way down in plaquemines parish they call it "spanish mulberry" or "inkberry" (though it does not possess inky juice)...........................the real cajun name, chasse-pareille, is as enigmatic as it is beautiful to pronounce............................nobody i've asked, including the likes of cajun linguistic experts like richard guidry  and amanda lafleur, can say what it means............................................................you'd think that a plant with such showy fruit would have some traditional medicinal value attached to it................................over the years, i've asked dozens of knowlegable people about that, and only two came up with anything..........i think it was ray brasseieur who said his grandmother soaked the berries in vodka and used it for he didn't know what...............and then this lady from around jennings (epicenter for under-the-radar attakapas indian descendants) told me that her mom (who lived around gueydan....) would soak the berries overnight in cool water, and use the water as "a refresher"........ wishing to understand the vibes of a "refresher," me & johnny mayronne decided to try it out one night/day.........honestly, i didn't notice any refreshing effects......or really any effects at all................perhaps i needed a heavier dose...................