I have recently become obsessed with mangos. Well, not obsessed really, but I seem to have developed an affinity for them. My first memorable experience with mangos was years ago in Thailand...a guide was leading a trek through various rice fields and villages and bought food along the way. At one point she gave us mangos with sweet sticky rice, and this was one of the best concoctions I had ever tried. It was really good. So ever since then, I look for sticky rice and mangos on menus in Thai restaurants. And I have also started buying them when they're in season. But they seem to appear in stores for only a short window, so when they do, I buy them regularly.
So all this to say, I am currently sitting here on a Sunday afternoon watching a mango that I placed outside our screen door in the sun. It seems kind of funny to me that I am sitting here observing it so intently, but it is for good reason. The squirrels that roam around our neighborhood have become quite audacious and bold, seemingly unafraid of humans. This is in part because they have latched onto the bird feeder our downstairs neighbors have by their unit. They consume pretty much all the bird seed and seem to have unquenchable appetites. They don't flinch or even back up when approached by humans. This makes me a little nervous, as I'm not that excited about the thought of aggressive squirrels roaming about. Our neighbor told us one even launched itself onto the outside of her screen door. I was like, what? So, back to the mango. It was quite hard when I bought it and it needs major ripening. And since it is not ripening fast enough for me, I thought I'd try putting it in the warm sun and see if that will speed it up. But, I must monitor it periodically to make sure the psychotic squirrels don't attack it first. I have no idea if they even eat mango, but I figure they'd probably try. They seem to be taking little nibbles out of everything else, including the succulents planted by our door. And since I won't be able to stay on "mango watch" all afternoon, I'm hoping some ripening happens quickly. 🙂