Berry Bountiful

It was a berry bountiful trip today ... nice to get away, even if only to Michigan, only for a few hours. Days like today are what summer is all about. As I sit here right now, with my sunburned toes, despite six hours in the car with two kids, I can honestly say that today was awesome. Even though my list of things to start and/or finish is longer than I'd care to imagine, I'm surprisingly care free ... days like today rock.

I was actually much closer to my Dad than I realized, only about an hour south of him ... he wasn't able to meet us today, due to his work schedule. I suppose I should give him more than twelve hours notice next time we do this.

After we got to the blueberry farm, and had our first potty break, we hit the fields! It smelled so good, just standing there, in the hot hot sun, just a bit of a breeze and the scent of blueberries. I think the second best feeling today was kneeling down in the sandy dirt, reaching in between the bushes, chatting with the kids while we picked. You could feel the temperature difference in shade of the bushes and smell the berries. It was hot sun beating down on you, but cool shade in the bushes, and the plunk plunk plunk of berries as they hit the buckets.

We worked well as a team - we stayed together and worked the rows. I am actually surprised at how well The Bee did, as her attention span is usually shorter than the life span of a fruit fly. She took blueberry picking very seriously, and only occasionally would ask me, "Mommy, I can eat this blueberry please?" The kids stayed together, within a few bushes of me, and there was no fighting, and I was actually able to hear Q give his sister berry advice:

• Now, Bee, you don't want to eat too many berries, because you'll have to make a big poo, and you could throw up. I did that one year, at Mimi & Boompa's house.
• No, you don't want that one, it's too green.
• Oh, here, this is a good one, they're just your age (he was referring to her height)
• Don't go too far, otherwise Mommy can't see you, and this place is REALLY BIG!
• You dropped some, make sure they go in your bucket, so we can make a pie when we get home.

We sort of lost our focus after our snack break, so we called it quits, and between the three of us, we ended up with almost 12 pounds of berries!

Off to the market we went to see what was there ... another thirty pounds of berries, and some dried cranberries as well. The Bee loved the dried cranberries, seeing as she cleared out the sample bowls they had in the store too.

So now, I'm sorting, rinsing and freezing my excess of blueberries. I'll definitely have enough to last me the year.

And, strangely enough, I'm making jalapeno jelly right now.

Garden Action

The hosta that has been eaten back to never before seen levels
















Our very first tomato of the season ... and it was a yummy one too!















One of our many "zukes" (as my mother called them) ... after three days of rain it was almost three times this size. And it made a mean loaf of zukey bread too!
















Tomorrow, we plan on making a 'Michigan Run' for some blueberries! Hopefully the picking is good! I'm also hoping that my Dad can meet us at the blueberry farm for lunch ... it's just past the halfway point for me ... a bit closer for him. Nothing like 300 miles round trip in the name of good berries.

We've met my Dad for berry picking before ... my Dad is a very fun "Poppy" ... and the kids really have a good time with him. I'm trying to help make memories for all of them, and with my Dad being four hours away, the opportunities aren't always there, so we have to try a bit harder for them, and definitely take them when we can get them. I have always wanted to live closer to my Dads (I have two), for a variety of reasons, but now that I have kids, the ache is more common.

But enough of that tonight ... no melancholy for me, at least not tonight, I've got a road trip to get ready for.