Blackberries...

Today I took my 3 middle girls to pick blackberries. Talk about getting stuff done when one is motivated. 3 girls, ages 10, 8 and 6 were up at 6:03 am. They got dressed, ate breakfast and walked the dog and were ready for the 1 mile steep trip up the hill to pick blackberries by 6:35 am. We walked up the hill, picked 4 pounds 4 ounces of delicious blackberries and were back home by 8:00 am. What a wonderful morning. We subsequently made 2 different types of blackberry pies...with homemade crusts, of course (but that's only because the 8 frozen crusts I have are being used for 8 quiches tomorrow). 1 traditional pie, and 1 pie with a baked crust but uncooked filling of blackberries in a cooked blackberry sauce. Simply delicious and worth the pound I will gain. :-) (Although, I would think the fact that we walked over 2 miles for the berries round trip should count for something!). Anyway, thanks to the book Miss Rumphius, a FIAR book, by Barbara Cooney, I do try to make the world a more beautiful place. I'm actually learning how to upload pictures, so although you won't have lovely pictures of my oh, so beautiful children to look at, hopefully these pictures of my garden will inspire you, as they do me. I would write more grumpy things, but to be honest, I'm sick of becoming the kill joy prophet (but don't worry, I won't say, "Peace, peace" when there is none to be found.) God did give us a beautiful world and I figure enjoying it is one way of showing gratefulness, which, as most of us realize, is in abundantly short supply these days.