This past Saturday, my good friend (now fully moved to Toronto--and I am LOVING IT!), Mandy, joined us for a morning of blueberry and raspberry picking. As the fruit and vegetable harvests come through, I am trying to live in and embrace the season. Summer is good that way, isn't it? Sometimes it is so easy to forget what is growing locally when you walk into the grocery store and can buy a pineapple any time of year. Especially if the "local" food section of the grocery store isn't obvious.
We drove north of Milton to Andrew's Scenic Acres to see what we could pick. We walked through the gate with much ambition--three large baskets to fill and half the morning to conquer and the promise of a blueberry cream cheese pie that needed to be made for evening. But when we got the fields, there was no one there. We soon found out why. The berries had mostly been picked over and what was left was mostly green. We picked and picked, but those small little blueberries weren't adding up fast, especially with two sets of little hands reaching for whatever ones we had picked. (We kept telling Gabriel to pick the blue ones, a phrase he repeated over and over, but I think he mostly ate the green ones anyway). We adjusted our expectations and picked what we could (it was more about the experience, anyway) and then bought a huge basket at the store on the way out.
But we did have a farm lunch and stopped to sniff the big beautiful dahlias as well as pet the ponies.
You
know, it's a funny thing as a parent. You watch your children grow and
engage in all of these various interests all the while observing to see
what piques their interest, what they are naturally good at, what they
need help with. I know it's a parent's bias but sometimes I feel like
Gabriel is so good at so many things! (Sports especially, which I
particularly admire since I have zero sports aptitude myself!) Watching
him on those horses, it was so fascinating. Gabriel had absolutely zero
fear of the horses. He patted them as if they were our dog, all the
while talking to them. He hopped on with the complete ease of an
experienced rider and hung onto the saddle, letting his body's motion
flow with the gait of the horse as if he had been doing this his whole
life. While the handler was walking them into the flowers, Gabriel gave
the horse a little kick on its flank which almost got the pony really
moving. Let me tell you, he knew exactly what he was doing, and this was just his first time!
Thanks Mandy-kins for joining us on our little berry picking adventure. You made it possible! Magdalene simply adores you. You want to come with us to pick apples soon? Hard to believe apple picking is already under way....
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