Boreal Witch

It's that time again...berry picking time!

Blueberries, specifically.

And we LOVE our blueberries. The boys could eat them on their own; I prefer them in something, such as muffins or pancakes.

Arthur was interested in supervising. He'd walk from Robinson to me back to Robinson all the while saying, "Look how many blueberries I have in my bucket...I need a new patch...No, Balin, don't eat all the blueberries! We need to save them for the winter." Given enough incentive, Arthur picked quite a few berries. Those were usually eaten or "saved" (and then forgotten) for later.

Balin would constantly try to steal blueberries from my bucket. He also had a difficult time navigating through bushes and walking on the uneven ground so he fell often. He nearly upturned my blueberry bucket a couple of times. Since we picked so late, he was always a touch crabby. I tried to keep him happy by plying him with blueberries. For the most part, it worked.  

It took us four evening trips to get almost 2 gallons of blueberries. With the distance to the blueberry patches and cost of gas what it is, it doesn't seem like it would have been worth it. Still, the lovely weather and the fun memories more than made up for it.

Someday these boys will be expert pickers.

Blessed be.

We try very hard to make at least one trip to Anchorage every summer. This year, however, we got to make two! Arthur was in heaven. He loves getting spoiled by his Nana and playing with his cousins. Well, mostly Molly, since Josh barely tolerates him and Ella is too young to be bossed around.

I know I've mentioned this in past posts, but Molly and Arthur get along very well, which is kind of surprising since he doesn't always get along with his other friends. I remember playing with my two cousins in the summers when we visited family. Both were very close in age to me and my sisters and we tended to get along nicely as well.

This was Balin's fourth trip to Anchorage. He was a dream. He loved following Nana's cat around and would look for her every time he came upstairs. He played well with Ella and Molly. He even let Mom and Blythe babysit him while Arthur, Becky, Molly, Ella, and I attended a birthday party for one of Molly's friends. Blythe admitted to stealing him when my back was turned.

The best part of the trip for Arthur was not getting spoiled or eating at restaurants, or even playing with Molly. No, the best part of the trip by far was that we flew home on an airplane. (You see, Robinson was on-call the weekend we planned to come back. He managed to get us some very reasonable tickets with miles.) It's amazing how something as mundane as going on an airplane is so exciting to a four-year-old. Balin, who had never been on a plane before, was very good. I was relieved and pleased.

Blessed be.