L‘amour… en cage

Having impressed myself yesterday with a hitherto unsuspected ability to stick to a plan and actually do some work, it was obvious that today was going to be a little more easy-going. However, I managed to do what I set out to do – only slacking off once the sun was coming over the yardarm.
 
The biggest thing for me today was that I discovered a new fruit. I don’t mean this in an “I discovered America” kind of way, although, on reflection, I probably do, but that I saw a fruit I had never seen before and it surprised me quite a lot. It happened in Navan, where I had driven to go grocery shopping, and the fruit in question is called a “ground cherry”. If like me, your first question when being told by the woman at the stall would have been “WTF is a ‘ground cherry’?”, then allow me to elucidate.
 
A ground cherry—also known as a goldenberry, husk tomato, Cape gooseberry, Peruvian groundcherry, Poha berry, pineapple groundcherry, husk cherry, physalis or Chinese lantern (I mean, is it any wonder I hadn’t heard of it if it keeps on changing its name – it’s the Lord Lucan of the fruit world)—comes encased in paper (hence the Chinese lantern name, I suppose) and is golden yellow. I bought a small box to see what they were like, and absolutely loved them. (So much so that I had to force myself to stop eating them or they would all have gone before I got home.) I don’t think I had ever seen a fruit wrapped in a sort of paper skin before – and I am sure this is down to a lack of observational skills on my part – but it threw me off to start with. I was given one at the stall and put it whole into my mouth: the lovely Franco-Ontarian woman who was serving me snorted in laughter and told me to peel it first, which was a little embarrassing, but whatever. The fruits are a little bit fleshy and a little bit tart (a lot like myself). Anyway, I was looking up their name on Google when I wondered what it was called in French (we translators, don’t you know) – and the name is absolutely glorious: “l’amour en cage”, or love in a cage. What a fabulous name for a small piece of fruit. True, it is also known as a “cerise de terre” (and I suppose also as “lanterne chinoise” or “groseille du cap”), but since I discovered the fruit and claimed it for the Ottawackers, I am going to insist that it go by its French name of “l’amour en cage” from now on. And if I catch any of you misnaming it, you’ll be in big, big trouble. D’ya hear?
 
Anyway, having suffered from a surfeit of amour en cage, I took Ottawacker Jr. to his football practice, then came back to cook dinner and torment the cats. As you can see, Charlie looks pretty upset by it all.