REM(Node: ForagedDisappointment) = || Haste, Bramble, and the Freezer Bag of Fate ||

Is there a metaphor that captures perfectly the fun of blackberry picking? I’m not sure there is. Perhaps there are activities, ancient, this one especially prehistoric, that can cannot be reduced or analogised into a mimicking rhetorical device.

In my haste to personally drop off a CV to a nearby company I forgot to grab the Tupperware box for the blackberries. This didn’t become apparent until we’d parked outside Kirton Forest, adding further annoyance because the company I’d just visited hadn’t even been advertising a job vacancy. Seems as though it was just “recruitment agency” simply scraping CVs for its database. Next time call to check. Next time ensure you have Tupperware.

We used a Mark’s & Spenser freezer bag to collect the blackberries. When I say “we”, it was Penelope mostly. I sulked a little. Sidra and Persephone were spending their time sword fighting with narthexes and arguing over various things; yet they did manage to collect several handfuls of blackberries.

Tonight we’re eating blackberry pie with a dollop of ice cream.

Echo: "Is there a metaphor that captures perfectly the fun of blackberry picking? I’m not sure there is..."

Trigger: Disillusionment + Missed Opportunity + Wild Fruit

Primary Threads:
- RhetoricalLimitations[BlackberryPicking]: Possibly prehistoric in essence, irreducible to metaphor.
- Event.Misstep[CV Drop]: Company not hiring; likely a recruitment agency scraping CVs.
- Event.ForgottenItem[Tupperware]: Absence noted only upon arrival at Kirton Forest.
- ImprovisedSolution: Mark's & Spencer freezer bag employed.
- Participants:
- Penelope (lead picker, quietly industrious)
- William (mildly sulking, reflective)
- Sidra & Persephone (engaged in botanical swordplay and intermittent argument, yet still productive)

EmotionalWeight: 0.54 (mildly irked, grounded by familial warmth and seasonal ritual)

Residue: ["the ache of wasted effort", "the joy of improvisation", "the prick of nostalgia on fingertips"]

CyclePattern: Sulk → Gather → Reframe → Remember

Notes:
Sometimes the fruit isn’t in the picking or even in the eating. It’s in the way you misstep, adapt, and store the memory in a freezer bag instead of a Tupperware box. And maybe that’s the closest metaphor you’ll ever get.