Off We Go, Into the Wild Blueberry Yonder...

I started this post last Friday and then got sidetracked and tripped up and busy and all, so I'm finally getting to it NOW.

Here's my original beginning - again, this was last Friday...

Sorry, I am having title-writing dysfunction this morning. It took me forever to decide what to write about this morning, and then I scrapped that and started over anyway, and then I stared at the blank spot for the title, and stared...and stared...and closed my eyes for while...and stared some more. So that's the culmination of all my efforts. My brain is just foggy this morning - probably because it's going to be all those awful summertime "H" words today - hazy, hot and humid - and I'm already sluggish, in anticipation.

Yesterday we went blueberry picking.

Out in the wild.

Okay, not the wild, but in a woodsy area near a nice big pond.

We picked berries,

Alex hunted frogs,

For a time, Julia refused to switch her shoes so they'd be on the correct feet.

We saw a broken Robin's egg,

and tiny grasshoppers on little wildflowers,

and a fuzzy yellow caterpillar.

When the kids started getting restless, Bill took them out in the canoe while I finished picking the berries.

I just noticed something with this picture...I'll go in closer so you can see, too.

Look at the faces of my husband and my son. Bill and Mini-Bill, intensity-wise. Julia sort of looks like she's sneering. Like..."Okay, this is no fun, they're not letting me cast, I don't want to be in this boat any more."

Between the four of us (mostly me) we picked about 3+ cups of berries - they were the little tiny wild ones - and I could have done better but I really, really wanted to get a shot of a fish leaping out of the water to catch one of the zillions of dragonflies that swooped and soared above the surface,

so there were times when I just stood perfectly still,

camera ready,

finger poised above the shutter button,

waiting.

And waiting.

And trying not to be annoyed by the bugs that occasionally buzzed in my ears or above my head, or landed on my legs. I tried to be patient, I really did. I tried to get into a National Geographic Wildlife Photographer state of mind, and just settle in for the long haul.

And so now I'll pick up where I left off last Friday....

I never did get that perfect shot of a fish leaping out of the water. I just missed it so many times,

and after a while I'd curse the fish out there and turn back to the blueberries. And then I'd hear another splash. The best I got was this shot of the fish as it fell back into the water.