Summer Harvest

A summer day that is spent almost entirely outside, is pretty close to perfect just in that regard. When you boil it down to the activities, it can just make you sigh with delight. There's a certain joy in just having a day where you don't do much more than appreciate the beautiful world Hashm created. And eat confections made from that world.

As we did last summer, and per request of the little girls at home, blueberry picking was the agenda for the day. What a difference a year makes! No longer a newborn, boy was very happy to scarf as many blueberries as we'd give him. Four year old was more than able to determine the "very fat- very blue" berries peeking out from under leaves, and clustered, seemingly oddly, with completely green, unripe berries. The current eldest, was so proud to navigate the rows on her own, filling her heart shaped basket with only the choicest fruits. When they had enough, we walked back to the car, still in good moods despite the heat, and made our way to a placid park near the farm, where lunch was eaten under a shady tree next to a pond with two elegantly spouting fountains.

There were other picnickers, each staking out their own shady patch of green. We assumed them to be locals (unlike us), and the very few of this town who were not riding their bikes or running/jogging on the main road, the one with no shoulder. And twists and turns. Lots of twists and turns. It was actually a fairly scary experience, never knowing when a cyclist would be around the next bend with another car approaching from the opposite direction.

We made our way home, and appreciated the generosity of my sister, as the girls were able to show their father how good they've gotten in the pool. Remarkably, the four year old has learned to swim without "floaties," even though her only swimming without them takes place in camp, which has only been a few weeks!

There was enough time to come home, dry off, whip up blueberry muffins and a quick blueberry plum cobbler until it was time to run off to a family bar-b-cue. Good food, good fun, good people.

Good day.