Fall is almost here.

How can I tell? Well, we went apple and blackberry picking. The last time we did pick-your-own was Sept 11, 2006. C5 was C2 and Q3 was just Q5months. It was a quick apple pick in Maine.

But today both girls were excited to pick apples, even with a longish drive up New Hampshire Ave to a farm in Howard County. The Gala apples were ripe, so that is what we picked.



We had some fuss over the yellow jackets on smushed apples, so after we picked some pounds of apples I carried Q3 and C40 walked C5 back.



But then we ran into the blackberries. Normally, I'm a raspberry, not blackberry fan. But, you can't argue with fresh berries of any sort. They were gorgeous, plump, juicy, sweet blackberries.

At first it looked as though it was mostly picked-over bushes and unripe berries. But then I had an idea to get way down low and I hit the motherload of berries.

My strategy resulted in grass and berry stains on my pants as I tried to get the low ones. C40 went for the high ones, and C5 & Q3 just got what they could. Q3 mostly just ate from the bushes, after we told her to keep her hand out of the flat.




Q3 fell asleep in the car on the way home, C5 read Dr. Seuss's The King's Stilts.