lanky girl found a new profession

Most of you know I hail from Hammonton, NJ, the blueberry capital of the world. You didn't believe me, did you? You didn't actually think that a little town in what you like to call, "New Joisey" (even though no self respecting NJ native ever calls it that) would be the blueberry capital of the entire world, but there it is, right there on the website. And when you go to Publix in late July, looking for some blueberries because the local ones are fried, where do you think they will be from? That's right, Hammonton, NJ.

I digress.

Kelly C. had the idea to go blueberry picking today. So, we did. It pretty much went like this.

Children are good blueberry pickers because they can get under the bushes and stand in the middle, where no one reaches. Though, according to Kelly C, I have "those long berry-picking arms," so I can reach in there pretty easily.

Here we have Malcolm "Oh, wait, we can eat the berries?!" Kee. For the first 45 minutes we played a cat and mouse game with him between the rows. Then I told him to taste a berry. He was golden after that. He'd pick one and say, "I eat dis one."

Here I am with Ceci and Captain Blueberry himself. (Henry wore his blue cape for the blueberry picking.) I am soaking wet but not from sweat as you may have thought being that this is Florida in the summer. No, in fact, the bushes in the shade were still soaked from an overnight rain, which kept all of us cool. So, though I felt like I had taken a dip in the pool, that was not the case. It would had been a very peaceful endeavor had we not brought Malcolm. It was very quiet and repetitive but somehow not monotonous. I mean, we only did it for an hour and a half or something. I'm sure day in and day out, it would get a little monotonous...

We picked about 6.5 lbs of blueberries. Needless to say, I froze some. And made smoothies. And ate some at lunch. I love blueberries.

(After looking at these pictures, don't you wish you were there? I know Miss America does!)