“It’s apple-picking day!”, I happily announced to my girls yesterday…so ready for the joys of fall…so ready to let summer pass me by…
But Mother Nature had other plans that day.
A short drive took us to a beautiful local farm where you can pick your own berries in the summer, apples in the fall…
The website had said that apple picking began in September, so we were off with thoughts and plans of homemade applesauce, apple pies and apple butter in our heads…
“We’re here to pick some apples today!”, I said to the man in the barn…
“Oh, ma’am…it’s a little too early. They won’t be ready for you to pick for about three more days”…What?!
“You can still pick strawberries, though, if you’d like”, he said, a bit apologetically…
I was crushed! Wished I had called ahead to make sure…but, not wanting to leave empty-handed, we decided to walk to the strawberry fields and pick our fill…
We’d been a bit sad, this summer, as we hadn’t gotten our usual bunch of wonderful strawberries from our generous local farmer friends—we were gone too much this year…but the opportunity hadn’t passed us by, after all…
I imagined that there wouldn’t be many good berries left for the picking this late in the season…Oh my, was I ever wrong!
Perfect, succulent, red & bursting, we collectively picked an overflowing flat-full…
Juice-stained fingers, full bellies and happy hearts…we headed for the car, homemade strawberry shortcake plans for dessert that night filled our heads and our conversation as we walked…
Walking back down the lane through the heavy-laden apple trees, I smiled to myself…
“You should never rush the seasons”, I seemed to hear Mother Nature say…
…and we’ll be back next week for the apples…
Sweet lesson learned.
See you soon with something new…
Julie
{Strawberry card made today…just to remind me to savor the sweet summer days…the vintage strawberry image is found in Crafty Secrets’ “Garden” Creative Scraps…paper from their new “Creating with Vintage Patterns” CD}
