Liquid Sunshine

I recently returned from a 2-week long visit with my mother.

She lives on the west coast of Florida and has this wonderful tree in her yard.

It is filled with an abundance of delicious oranges.

When my children were living at home and we made an occasional

winter visit from cold New York to sunny Florida, they loved 3 things:

swimming, roller blading and making orange juice.

In those days the juicer was electric and the sound of grinding was heard day and night. Gallons were squeezed and drunk!

It seemed endless.

This visit started out with just me and a little manual juicer.

What fun to step out the door early in the morning, reach up and grab a handful of warm oranges to carry inside. Twisting each on the little glass dish made the sticky and sweet juice pour down the sides. The fragrance was intoxicating!

And the taste is like nothing else! No store bought OJ can even begin to compare with the taste of such a fresh and warm glass of this! Smooth and thick and sweet.

We call it "liquid sunshine" and cold germs don't dare even peek around the corner

when it's in our glasses. Boy, I wish I could share some with you right now!

I'll close with a sweet memory:

Many winters we had to remain in snowy and cold upstate New York and couldn't make the trip to visit Florida. My Dad, while he was still living, always wanted to share some of these super oranges and would annually pack up a box and mail them to us. He always left a few green leaves on a stem to remind us of the tree. I smile to recall the excitement in the kitchen when that box arrived--squeals and laughter as each of us stuck our noses inside the cold box and took a long whiff of the honey-sweet fragrance of those little oranges.

Then we got out the little glass juicer and sliced and squeezed and poured.

A moment of reverent silence followed as we each brought those glasses to our lips, closed our eyes and, for a few brief moments, we were flooded with Florida's warmth and sunshine.

There just aren't words that describe such pleasure.