Strawberry Fields

  

An idea is beginning to take place in my mind, one that hypothesizes there is no better way to kick off summer than to be stained by fresh strawberry juice.

Another idea is that warm strawberries are the best berries.

Both concepts formed while we spent a number of hours peeking and picking through rows and rows of strawberry fields, testing both hypotheses as we went.

One of the things I loved most about being free in the fields was how each child's nature came out to play.  Sawyer is very interested in the rules of things, and he was careful to try to pick only the red berries. He also gingerly stepped over the rows of plants while eating berries, occasionally remembering due diligence and plopping a berry into his pail.  That being said, he was still intensely excited and jumping about and chattering about all the berries he found, asking why the hay was on the ground, why we picked where we did, and why we would want to take the berries home.

Elouise started out picking berries, then found it was easier to pick already picked berries, and snatched them from our buckets.  She was mainly concerned with exploration-we call her the silent wanderer, as she absorbs the world with quiet wonder. But she's plenty loud when she wants to be heard, and mischievous to boot.  Her favorite activity became piling straw on herself and tossing it at passerby.  Listening isn't yet her favorite thing to do, so she trampled plants and picked plenty of green berries, then headed for all the puddles that were, of course, right by all the parked cars.  

Following all that observation, if we return again to the issue of warmth and berries, and stains, added to babies in the strawberry fields, it seems to me that summer has officially begun.