Here and There

I've been wandering again. To find the elusive yellow raspberries.
Mission accomplished.

Of course I had to do it on the hottest most humid day we've had so far.

I found some St. John's Wort.

Everyone is in a huge scare over the wild parsnip. If you mess with it and get juices on you while they are flowering, you will get burned and blistered.

However I walked carefully through a field full of them. Walk carefully. Don't wear shorts and be very cautious.

In order to find the yellow wild raspberries, I had to get through them.

It was a delight to find them and eat them.
I didn't bring a pickin' bucket.

I just enjoyed the taste.
However, I wonder why I always decide to pick the hottest days to do these wanderings?

At least I was able to cool off in the creek on the way home.

After splashing myself with cool water, I sat on a rock and just enjoyed the forest sounds.

Time for the Berries!

Here is my cohort and fellow berry picking buddy.
Morris.

He loves picking wild raspberries, black caps, black raspberries....he even occasionally helps himself.

I have a love-hate relationship with wild berries.  They are prickly to pick and usually the bugs are very annoying.
It is usually hot and muggy too.

Yet I like picking them and love eating them.

I freeze them on a cookie sheet then drop them into a container for winter eating.
There is something quite exotic about eating a fresh bowl of berries in the midst of winter.

This year I'm pretty lucky.  The berries along the driveway have really burst forth with big fat luscious black berries and the picking is pretty easy.  I don't have to hike far and if I time it right I can pick them while they are in the shade.

Plus I can pick until I am tired and then go back later, refreshed and get more.

Fresh berries for dessert.
Fresh lettuce and beet greens from the garden!

What more could a person want?