Found

On his bike excursions, Josh found patches of these berries growing in several spots around town. Yesterday we took the boys out on a berry picking expedition. We think that they are black raspberries. They are sweeter than regular raspberries and more perfumey. Last night we enjoyed them on top of ice cream. There are plenty more patches and plenty more berries ripening everyday. I imagine we will spend a lot of time over the next few weeks gathering these gifts from the land. The process of picking itself is a meditative art - like plucking beads off a rosary. The potential for using these berries is endless - black raspberry syrup, frozen berries for winter smoothies, black raspberry wine?

And then there are the things that grow right around our own house. These flowers called Butter and Eggs (yum) began growing in our front yard. They were an unexpected gift that set me to thinking. I have wanted to eliminate the front lawn for years now but have not gotten far because I've felt intimidated by the need to have some great master plan. Frankly, I just don't have enough gardening knowledge to create the master plan, so each year I dream and each year I hesitate. I think that I've come to a conclusion that perhaps I should just start planting things that I think are pretty out there and see how it goes. Maybe over time I will just turn portions of the lawn into a wild mess of pretty plants. Maybe the plants are smart enough to create order for themselves.