Strawberry Fields

Quick! Pick it before the mocking bird gets it!

For the second year in a row, we've planted and raised strawberries for our family.  This year's crop is not as heavy as last year's, but we're starting to fill up!  I put a few in the freezer after we got tired of eating fresh berries, strawberry/banana salad, strawberry shortcake, strawberry everything!

If the weather stays cool, we'll be eating berries
for a few more days.

Our older grandchildren have learned to simply grab the berry basket and race to the garden.  Our younger granddaughters were too little to enjoy the berries last year, but this year we can't seem to pick enough for them.  Marley lives next door, so she's a regular picker.  She and her dad come by, eat a few berries while standing in the garden, then go home again.  He's discovered that picking them while she's there is less stressful.  When she's had enough, he just can't seem to find some red ones.

She wasn't too particular at first, she'd eat the red ones and the pink ones.  Then one day she picked her own.....a white-pink one.  It was a bit more tangy than she could handle.  Her little squinty faces were cute for a while anyway.  Since then she's more particular about the ones she picks now.

What's left after one picking by the big kids.

Caki, on the other hand, lives an hour away, so she gets goodies from Grammy and Poppa only once in a while.  They are a busy little family and gas has reached untouchable prices, so our visits don't happen anywhere as often as we'd like.

When they come for a visit, though, Caki loves to play in the yard and finding her way to the strawberry patch is part of that.

What about you?  Do you have small children in your life?  If so, what do you do to bring nature into their lives?