Every last berry

 We are anticipating a proper storm here. The worry is that as it is arriving very early in the season, it will cause trees to fall on a grand scale and damage power networks and whatever get stuck under those falling trees. So it made sense to go check out the forest berry situation while it was still relatively calm. It was also a good way to pass time on the last day before new school starts tomorrow. Not that we're nervous or anything. 

We found lots of blueberries. Some of them were little, but in the fresher, greener areas, we found heaps and heaps of them. Some plants had already dropped their leaves, making picking really easy. Some of them were a bit over ripe, so we got purple berry juice all over our hands. We also found plenty of lingonberries, but did not pick any yet. The kids decided they did not like them as well, so we'll have to maybe first decide to make a bit of jam with them or something. We also found some bog whortleberries (aka juolukka) and the kids liked them, but I'm not sure they'd accurately identify them so we just stuck to the blueberries. It's a trick to know which berries you can (blueberry, lingonberry, bog whortleberry, crowberry) and cannot (lily of the valley, herb-paris) eat. We did not find all of these in one place, of course, but could have run into any of them around there.

Even as we were trying to leave the forest, we kept stopping as we found more berries. Hey big ones! A few more! Just one more patch! I also asked the kids to figure out which way to get back to our bikes, as we had been roaming around the area rather freely. After a false start, both kids homed in in the general correct direction and we were able to go home and make some crumble. 

The leaves are starting to turn. I expect after the storms we'll see more yellow on the ground and more sky through the branches. We were also so very happy to hear that the air has cleared back home, and that it even rained there also! Such good news.