Blackberries
Friday, July 30, 2010
7:30, and Mom and Francis had arrived to pick them up for blackberries. Out to the farm under silver skies.
Already, there were people lined up outside the rows of prickly bushes, and by 8:00, it was opened for picking.
Puck immediately ran for the first blackberry he saw, and popped it into his mouth. He kept sneaking berries for the next twenty minutes, as they filled eight pints’ worth of boxes with plump berries, like hematite, shiny black rocks.
The thorns were razor. They snagged the skin. But all the fattest berries were inside the brambles. And surely, if Collette ate blackberries, it would be worth the effort. They left with scratched arms under skies which folded over themselves in blue.
“Francis and I used to call those ‘bacon clouds’,” said Linnea-Irish. “Because they’re wavy on the sides like bacon.”
Back at the house, Carrie-Bri handed Collette a pile of dreadlocks. “Cut out five more,” she said.
“What happened to your hair?” Puck asked, surprised. “You left it behind!”
Then Carrie presented him with a bunch of baby bananas while she prepared chocolate truffles for Grandpa (because of course the chocolate-covered pretzels did not last long enough to make it over there…) and a peach pie, and turned on Kevin Max’s newest album. One of her very earliest obsessions. Back from 1999 at the Billy Graham Crusade.
“Amazing voice,” she said. “Terrible writing.”
And by eleven, the rain was falling.
For the afternoon, everyone went off to visit Grandpa. He was pretty happy about the chocolate truffles. He had one, and after some more conversation…
“Could I have another one of these?” he asked, eyeing the wrapper of chocolates.
“They’re all yours, Grandpa,” Carrie said, laughing.
Then right to the library for another function, sort of scavenger hunt, for Linnea-Irish with Mandarin. And on the way, Puck pretended to talk on the phone, a.k.a. the strap on his car seat.
Meanwhile, OLeif’s back still ached, but by the evening, it seemed to get better.
And Esther had sent out her save-the-date for November 13th, in Nashville.