I love fresh fruit in summer time. There's something so refreshing about it--from strawberries to peaches to watermelon and even blueberries.

In high school, I worked at a fruit and berry stand so I am very familiar with these fruits, when they come into season and how to select the best ones from thumping watermelons to knowing the different between cling and cling-free peaches. The cling-free peaches, I'll have you know, are easier to can because the flesh of the fruit separates more easily from the stone (or the pit).

Anyhow, in Bulgaria there are lots of roadside stands selling melons. Usually there's watermelon and a melon that looks to me, an American, like a cantaloupe from the outside but when you cut into it the flesh is green like a honeydew.  This weekend I cut into a melon that I assumed would be green inside.
<a title="cantaloupe in Bulgaria by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/7622161620/"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7121/7622161620_6ec871af0d_z.jpg" alt="cantaloupe in Bulgaria" width="640" height="480" /></a>
Imagine my surprise when it was cantaloupe orange. I just about died. Then I took some pictures of it and after that I tried to eat half of it in one sitting. My eyes were bigger than my stomach. Since then I've been eating the cantaloupe like melon steadily and every time I see it in my fridge I marvel at the fact that this is first time in four years that I've ever seen a cantaloupe-like melon.
<a title="Bowl of cantaloupe by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/7622168474/"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7112/7622168474_5c6077b7fd_z.jpg" alt="Bowl of cantaloupe" width="640" height="480" /></a>
The funny thing is that since finding this orange melon I've found myself that much more excited to head home to Walla Walla for the month of August--nine days and counting.

Oh and what's more, I can't get this really bad joke out of my head:

What did the honeydew say when the watermelon proposed?

I am sorry I can't elope tonight.

<em>Ha, ha, ha.   Can't elope. Cantaloupe.</em>

And yes, this joke made me laugh just as much when I was 5 years old as it does today.