Of Boys and Berries
I have never met a berry that did not intrigue me, even those shiny ones on shrubs just for the birds. I love the look of round orbs containing a surprise. This must explain my infatuation with eggs. And tomatoes.
These last two days have been full of small round shiny things. The birds in the tree right out my window here have been keeping me company for 4 days running, piping their high sweet pips while swallowing numbers of the shad berries you can see in the photo below.
Saturday, after a rather death defying morning with my Ben, my boy, I discovered the first strawberry in our patch. We had to share that berry right there and then. I needed something to mend the scary moments we had weathered on a steamy weekend morning. I nibbled half and he the other.
I am a rather lax berry farmer. If you can stand benign neglect, then go ahead and live here, I say. There are gooseberries out there, red and black currants, several wayward blueberries, and the remnants of a promising blackberry patch that never delivered anything but false hopes and random upstarts all over my beds.
But those strawberries are holding their own. Once I tasted the fruit of June, I knew it was time for a road trip. I cast aside my lists and headed over to Ancramdale, NY to pick at Thompson Finch Farm. www.thompsonfinch.com
The berries are sublime, the picking so easy and the farmers are some of the best in the Berkshires. Tom and Marnie have cultivated a bit of heaven over on Wiltsie Bridge Road. We started going there when Ben was a baby, sleeping in the car parked in the shade. Both my kids will pick berries because they trust in the future that berries promise. Whipped cream and shortcakes, bare-naked berries all day long and then the winter balm of berry jams and smoothies. We all love berries.
It makes me consider what exactly is my job as a full time Mom? I have the laundry and household thing going. I have the schedule thing rolling. The appointments and planning things are shared with my husband. We are connected to community here. I stir with my artistic work more and more. I am headed off with Karen this weekend to teach in Amesbury. My role here is important and vital, but still I ask- what makes this job mine? I must tell you there are many steeply challenging days when I’d rather work for someone other than myself. Full time parenting is a gift somedays and a mudhole on others. What more do I bring to this family than Mothering the whole crew, guests, berry bushes and all?
It is my passion for living full out.
I toss aside the to-do list for strawberry picking on a cool June day when the breeze lifts the hair off my neck.
Carpe berrium.
I do love my job.
How about you? What happens when you toss aside the lists?
Thank you for stopping by the Line. I love having you here.
S
