Wild Weather, Wild Berry Pie

Hurricane Ike isn't looking good. As of this morning parts of Harris (i.e. Houston's) county are under mandatory evacuation, and we look set for a pretty bad hit. Morgan, the kitties, and I will hunker down with her parents in their sturdier townhouse. Three nervous cats, two nervous dogs, and us...and maybe no power for days. But who knows. The storm could shift. Nobody quite knows what to expect. The good news? I don't have to teach the writing workshop on Saturday morning, I'm guessing. The bad news? I have to turn the ENTIRE draft of my novel into my master's workshop next week, and I may not have the ability to plug in my laptop after Friday night. I should be more worried about windows breaking, probably, but hey. It's the perfectionist in me. I'll print the whole draft today and at least then I can work by hand and flashlight.

Needless to say, I'm not firing up the oven. I thought I'd post photos of the wildest of pies, though, to match the wildest of weather: Wild Blackberry, or as some might say, Pacific Dewberry. Pretty, aren't they? These native Northwestern berries hide low to the ground on thorny vines and are notoriously bashful. Their flavor is light years beyond your average blackberry. It's a sharply sweet, acidic bite, a decadent explosion. In fact, a tart wild blackberry pie will make your tongue pucker. But trust me, add cold vanilla ice cream and warm flaky crust, and this is close to pie nirvana.
On another note, Crazy Landlady came up here last night, panicking, swearing this storm was The Big One. She asked us to leave on Friday and then rambled about how if the wind sounds like a train (?), we should just get in the bathtub and pull a mattress over ourselves. Um, okay. She's freaking out about tornadoes, which I hear can form on the eastern side of the storm - our side. Still, she's a bona fide nutcase.