spontaneous berries

Col and I made a long list of things to do yesterday. We even numbered the list 1 through 13. We only made it to number 3 though. That's because number 2 brought us to an auto parts store near our house (to get a replacement bulb for one of my headlights). It was closed so we drove down further on Shelburne Road to Advanced Auto. They had what we were looking for.

Then we were stuck. Number 3 entailed a hardware store, but we had driven far away from the one Aubuchon in South Burlington. Luckily I remembered that there's a cute little hardware store in Shelburne Village. It had everything we needed: replacement bulbs for our track lighting, silver polish for my jewelry, and minuscule metal washers to repair our Asian floor lamps. Gotta love hardware stores, huh? They have everything you ever need, from bike locks and dog bones to wheelbarrows and toilet lids.

Any-who.

After that successful stop, Col and I were feeling a little giddy--and a little spontaneous. We stopped by the Shelburne General Store for some penny candy. It was then I realized.

"Hey, we're not far from the berry farm," I said. "Let's go picking!"

Col thought it was a great idea. He's all for spontaneity. Any time. Any where.

So we did it, we kept driving down Route 7 towards Charlotte. Right before the berry farm, we caught sight of the Charlotte flea market. "Pull over!" I yelled.

Without hesitation Col swerved the car down over the embankment and into the field-cum- parking-lot next to the market stands. We walked by tables of dream catchers and antique cigarette lighters. We walked by dusty old beer mugs and Samurai swords. Good old all-American veterans selling shotguns and switchblades. Gypsy skirts. Arctic Cat boots and snowmobile helmets. One man was selling good luck charms and Japanese fans with electric blue dolphins and cowboy horses painted on them. He said to us, "We've got a special going on today: anything's free in exchange for green paper."

"Nice one," I said as we smiled and inched away. Sufficiently freaked out, we hopped in the car and headed down the road to the berry farm.

It's blueberry season now, and they're abundant! But we also managed to scrounge up a pint of
fresh raspberries too. I used them to make a scrumptious Raspberry Almond Crumb Tart that we gobbled up in one sitting.

Berry picking was certainly a highlight of the day. The warm August sun was shining down. I was spending some much-needed alone time with my boy. And the berries were so ripe and tasty off the branch--still warm from the sunshine. I got a little nostalgic remembering my childhood in the berry bushes. What fabulous little memories this day conjured up.

On the way home, we were deterred from our to-do list once again: Emi and Kev called to see if we wanted to hang out pooly-side. Sweet!

We zoomed home and hopped into our bimmers (that's mummy-speak for swimsuits) and went over to Em & Kev's--bountiful berries in hand.

After soaking up some rays and getting to a very good point in my book of the now (On Beauty by Zadie Smith) we went inside and made dinner. I whipped up the aforementioned tart and Emi made beer-can grass-fed chicken on the grill. What a fabulous ending to a fabulous day! (Even though we only made it to number 3 on our list).