H and I headed back to The Berry Farm in Colts Neck this morning for another attempt at berry picking. I wasn’t sure I’d make it to today’s harvest, but when I saw the temperatures were in the 70s I kind of decided it was now or never. This time we did blackberries instead of black raspberries, and it went much more smoothly. It wasn’t too hot, there was plenty of fruit, everyone was happy. We left with 2 buckets full of blackberries! I see another jam making day in our very near future. Or possibly blackberry liquer? Or both? We’ll see. I forgot my actual camera, so I just snapped a few pics with my phone.

There were tons of blackberries for the picking. Most of them weren’t ripe yet, it’s still early. But we were able to get plenty.

I’m getting the hang of this whole Baby Bjorn thing, I even gave H her bottle while picking with one hand. I’m not saying we both didn’t end up covered in milk, but it was a noble effort at least. The man who runs the berry farm is great, and he pointed me to a row of berries that I wouldn’t need to bend over to get. He also let me drive my car right up to that row, so when H had had it in the Bjorn I packed her in the car, turned on the AC, left the door open, and grabbed the last berries I could from the branches closest to the car. Not too shabby.

A tuckered baby sprout and 2 buckets of berries. We struck out so early this morning she was still in her PJs, which I figured would help protect her little arms and legs from the sun anyway.

We came home, and I was just on fire. After our water crisis last week I finally put my tomato plants back out and watered them. I also planted the herbs I’d bought and never put in their pots. AND Adam and I bought 2 lavender plants last weekend for the patio flowerbeds so I planted those, too. Not sure how great a job I did, we have terrible soil that makes digging deep holes by hand kind of a nightmare. But we’ll see. Then I took a 2-hour snuggle nap with H. Super productive day, now the baby is in her crib for the night and I’m waiting for Adam to get home with dinner.

I’m working so hard to make the most of this time with the baby. I’m dreading my return to work in September, not because I don’t love my job but because I can’t imagine being away from H. I know it’ll pass, I know we’ll all be fine, I know it will be great to get back to work. But I’m packing these summer days with all the adventures and snuggles I can manage. So far I think we’re doing just fine.