Favorite Summertime Activity...

Red raspberries, ripe for picking...

Each summer my family and I get to enjoy the company of two very special friends ~ Kaytlin and Christine.  They live in Wisconsin, but enjoy coming to visit us and having trips to the beach, going fishing, and doing other fun things that they don't get to do at home, and I get to have fun doing the things I used to love to do with my girls when they were young.  

The other day I took them to a local farm to pick raspberries ~ which they'd never done before...

It had been years since I'd been to the farm to pick berries,  in fact seventeen to be precise... 

It was the first summer that we'd spent on the island, I was new to my surroundings, and not sure if we'd made the right move, I didn't know many people, but that day seventeen years ago will stay with me for ever... The beauty of the rolling farmland, the green-ness of it all, the sweet smell of summertime... my little girl, two years old holding onto my legs chattering away, loving the berries, some for her..., some for the pot,,,, some for her.....  Standing there pregnant with my second baby, I felt an overwhelming   sense of wellness and peace with the world.  In that moment, I knew and told myself...  It doesn't get any better than this...  My heart was full, and I felt so truly blessed for that moment in time, for a rare beautiful, blissful moment, I knew contentment...

So, I was so happy for the opportunity to go back to the farm once again, and introduce my young friends to this magical place and the pleasures of picking raspberries...

My trusty pickers walking up the dusty farm track to the berry fields...

Quickly getting the hang of things, they filled box after box...

Their full concentration, quite evident...

So that in no time at all...

They'd filled our flat of sweet delicious fruits..., and had such a good time  doing it..

Too bad they had to leave that afternoon, or we could have made raspberry jam... 

maybe next year?