: Saturday : Journey :

We've been eyeing the blackberry bushes for the last month or so, awaiting the well-ripened berries. Though harvest time varies a bit throughout the county, we decided to hit a particular section down by the river often frequented by us. It is saturated with bushes lined across the mountainside tucked back away from the river itself. It was a lovely day...actually, it has been a few occasions at this point....... of picking blackberries with the boys and Daniel. There are still more to be picked very soon, being that many are still radiant and red, plump and juicy, near ready for the picking. I think our next round down by the river will entail filling a basketful for Jared's Waldorf kindergarten classroom. They dearly appreciate these kinds of offerings, and berry-picking is a time-consuming, yet rewarding and meditative process. It seems magical to the children to be amongst a hovering jungle of thorny bushes producing such a plethora of shining and tempting berries. It is so similar to some of the stories we read and Jared feels like he can climb further into Elsa Beskow's Peter in Blueberry Land. Plus, the manual repeated act seems to be very calming and intriguing to them for long periods of time...even for Dylan, who is now approaching 2 1/2 and is very high-energy. I truly wish I had more pictures, but I was busy harvesting many-a-berry and making different things with the mountains of smooth black delights.

This basket I decided to line with random fabric in my stash that I would have probably never used. I did like the berry/blackberry theme going on though.

So, happy harvesting to all who engage in such an act of appreciating that which nourishes us from the Earth itself. Enjoy summer as it draws near its end and while it opens up so many delicious possibilities in the inevitable autumn to come.