Berry Picking

I spent about 2 hours this evening picking berries. Blackberries.

Now let me paint the picture for you. I'm home alone, since Mary is visiting her sister. I have nothing to keep me inside. I dress in long pants and long sleeve shirt, preparing for the thorns and possible poison ivy to come.

The temperature outside was about 97 this evening. I drank lots of water, and put on my cowboy hat to keep the ticks off my head.

I slowly walked about a mile away from the house, over to the grounds of the college where the berry patches are. I enjoyed the silence. But reflecting on it, it wasn't silence. It was a flurry of sounds. Birds, insects, breeze rustling leaves. Frogs in the distance. A car going down the highway. An aircraft on final approach to BWI. All of this I took in, as my attention was drawn to those little and big wild blackberries. What a relaxing way to spend a couple of hours. Oh, and I must have eaten about 2 cups of the berries right off the brambles.

By the way, you have to focus on the berries, as well as keep the very prickery brambles from tearing into your skin as you pluck that juicy berry. My index finger and thumb are still purple from the juices of the over ripe berries. Those are the ones I ate, because they wouldn't have traveled well anyway.

I finished picking the ones I could get to and returned home to the garden. I harvested a zucchini from the plant in the front yard down near the road, and then walked around the house. I nibbled a couple of ripe blueberries from the bushes, and noticed that there are some strawberries ready too. I'll get them tomorrow. I continued to walk around, just enjoying what I see. Tomatoes that are coming on, Swiss chard ready to pick. Salad greens for lots of salad.
What's this? A few beans peaking out from under their leaves. So I went inside and got a basket to catch the few beans. I went around behind the trellis and my jaw dropped at the sight! There were bunches and bunches of beans back there. I could have sworn they weren't there yesterday! Anyway, I set about picking beans, and by the time I was done, there was a whole basket full. I brought it inside to the kitchen, washed, snapped, blanched and froze about a gallon of beans. I kept some aside for tomorrow evenings celebratory meal. Mary returns!

What I notice about this simple life that I've chosen, is that I have time to notice things. I have time to be with people I love. I have time to be with myself, without feeling rushed, or harried or stressed-out. This simple life isn't for everyone, but for me it works extremely well.