blackberries!

One of my favorite memories from the summers my parents lived in the RV are the adventures at Mr. Dennis' house.  The kids had so much room to explore and play outside.  They LOVED it.  Mr. Dennis (and Miss Shirley) are very gracious and let us come back each year to pick blackberries.  This summer Lucy was big enough to come along and "help" by being our taste tester.

Here's our harvest! Each kiddo did very well this year in contributing to our bounty.  Delicious cobbler was their reward!

I never really appreciated how much work goes into picking! We used to have blackberry bushes in our back yard growing up, and my mom would diligently pick, wash, and freeze them. Later she would make jam, cobbler, homemade fruit leather, etc. SO. MUCH. WORK. I'll never take that for granted again. It's also why I may or may not have cried like a baby when this happened...
Noah found this feather, and brought it home for his treasure box. After I was done washing, sorting, and prepping the blackberries there was a nice amount of "juice" in the bowl. Noah decided it would make great ink! He sat down and diligently wrote letters to each of his special friends.