Passion Fruit

When asked how she was doing today the young Portuguese lovely replied, "Peachy".

My mind was instantly transported to a vision of taking the first bite of the first peach of the season.

For weeks you've watched the young fruit grow from small and green to round and plump, tinted with first yellow, then pinkish, to pinkish red. You've had to restrain yourself from plucking it before it was fully ripe. Oh, they can be eaten while partly green.......but the taste is tart, almost bitter. How much better to wait..
..restraining your urges to indulge before the moment is right. Until that perfect moment, when you take the fruit into your hand, and can feel that it is firm, yet not too much so. With just the right amount of give, that indicates the flesh inside is fully ready........

You brush at the soft fuzz outside,. Not too much, you want the texture of it to remain somewhat on the flesh in order to feel it as you sink you teeth into it, feeling the skin burst, the yellow flesh yielding wetly as you press it into your mouth giving a slight sucking in order not to let any of the sweet syrupy goodness excape. But it does and as the juices run down your chin you take your fingers and wipe it up, not wanting to miss a single drop of it's peachy goodness.

Time is suspended as your senses can only process the smell,that peachy aroma that assaults your sinuses, the slippery texture of the fruit, so fully ripe that it seems to slide down your throat. The cares of the world drop away for that one perfect moment.

Just you and your peach. That's all that matters as you eat it down to the nut inside.