I spent an entire Sunday taking photos without a memory card in my camera. The silly thing pops up an error message on the screen when I forget to put the card back in, but I rarely look at it, and never check quality on my pictures until I get home, especially if I’m with the girls. They move too fast for me to be fiddling with the camera.

So that’s how it is that I’ve gone so long without posting. I was so frustrated with myself because I “took” so many great shots I was excited to share, and then I couldn’t see the forest for the trees.

On this particular day that went completely undocumented, we went raspberry picking as a family. The brakes on the truck had been locking up and smoking, so we had to drop it at the mechanic. When J told me where this fellow was located, I realized that I’d seen signs over that way for pick-your-own raspberries.  I grabbed his gram’s enamelware popcorn bowl before hopping in the car, because that’s obviously the most photogenic receptacle for freshly picked berries, and we told Sweebee we were going on an adventure.

We followed the hand-stenciled signs onto a back road with no painted lines and a “No Outlet” sign, and turned into a dirt driveway. There was a pop-up tent to the right, and rows and rows of raspberry canes to the left. Another stenciled sign let us know that the proprietor had stepped away, but to go ahead and start picking. We helped ourselves to a fabulously rustic wooden basket with paper pint boxes, and headed out.

Beans studied J and I for a few minutes as we gave Swee instructions and began picking, and then proceeded to stuff her face. Amazingly, she only seemed to pick the ripe berries, so she clearly knew what she was doing. She wandered up and down the row, and around the end to join her daddy on the other side, happily indulging herself. Swee picked a few while muttering “kuplink, kuplank, kuplunk” to herself (another Blueberries for Sal reference. I told you: obsessed), but also ate more than she saved.

Half an hour of picking and a mere $11 later, we wound up with four pints of warm, fresh, organic raspberries. It was a beautiful adventure, maybe even more so because it was so spontaneous.

What do I have photos of?

– The first cherry tomato from our garden, picked this morning. We’re going to be swimming in them in about a week. I may set up a table at the bottom of the driveway with the ubiquitous coffee can honor system if we can’t eat them all.

– The last of the black raspberries, I think. There are more out there, but they’re up high and well into the weeds, and as I am not very tall and definitely not a fan of ticks and snakes, I think I’m going to cede the rest of them to the birds.

– This newly blooming flower which the pollinators are clearly loving. Does anyone know what it is?

Hope you’re all having a lovely mid-July. I’ve got a couple recipes to share with you tomorrow and early next week, hopefully with photos this time.