This has Got to be one of my More Beloved of Outdoor Activities! Especially with What I Feel to be "Blackberries"!

(I'm a Little Foggy as to the Difference between a Blackberry and a Raspberry! I would Think a Blackberry is the Rounder, Purplish One!, and that a Raspberry is the More Oblong, Reddish One! This would Seem Naturally to be the Case! But I Think I've Heard a Number of Times, that it's Actually the Opposite!)

In Any Event, -I Love to Find one of my Country or Semi-Countryside of Northeastern Roadsides or Fields!. And Go About Picking Them to my Heart's Content! Especially Again those Roundish Purplish Ones, -the "Blackberries"! (I Will Assume They are Actually Blackberries, -for the Rest of this Post.) I just basically *Like* to Pick, the Reddish More Oval Ones, which I Feel to be Raspberries.

Ah!, Many a Time while Living Back There in the Country!, or While on a Walk or Hike Somewhere!, -I'd Come Across such Berries in Abundance!

Of Course it has to be the Right Time of Year! This is Limited to Not Much More than a Month or So, in the Early Summer, -Generally May and June, -Round Here in Southwestern PA. It can Probably Vary by 2 or 3 Weeks in any Given Year, Due to General Climate and Weather Considerations. Sometimes a Bit Earlier, Sometimes a Little Later. But we've Always Got at least a Good Few Weeks of It!

You've of course Got to Get Them While the Gettings Good Though! When Both in Such Ripe Quality!, and in Such Abundant Quantity! The Summer Doesn't have to go on Too Long!, -Before they All Rapidly Start Passing their Prime! Many of you are Already Well Familiar, with this Aspect of Berrys and Berry Picking!

I Just Stop Awhile!, and Pick and Eat to my Heart's Desire!, from Right There among the Bushes and Brambles! Putting Many into What Bag or Other Happenstance Receptacle, as I may have Available! A Sunny (or Cloudy) Field or Scrub Area!, a Roadside or Down Along the Railroad Tracks!, -Wherever Around Here They then Ubiquitiously Be! Deliciously Ripe of Course!, -Right Off the Thorny Canes!

(That may be a Bit of a "Thorn in Our Side", to Have to Deal With! I'm Ages Ago Well Practiced, and it's No Mean Feat! But the Luscious Plant of course, Has Developed Them for Good Reason! In it's Own Sorts of Survival Interests and Imperatives! It of course Can't Be Blamed!, as I Know that None of Us Do! But there are Moments of course, When we Wish it would be Different! I've Seen some Real!, "Mean Business"!, Thorns Around Here!)

(Thorny and Otherwise Sharp or Spiky Plants, by the way, -Are an Important Enuff Aspect of Survival and Outdoor Activities, -to be Certainly Aware of!)

Of Course there's Times when I Go Out on a Berry Picking "Expedition" too! It's Not Always just a Happen By Affair! There and Then, I Take Along a Good Sized Container(s). Enter the Field, -and Go At It!

I've Got Many Fond Memories Especially, -of an Acre or Two's Field!, -Some 300 to 500 Feet from a Beloved Place I Used to Live, Out There in the Western Pennsylvania / Washington County, Countryside! It was a Hilltop Location, Field and Clearing type Area, on a Kind of Knob on the Hill, and just Below our One Lane Country Road. Separated from that Road by a Thin Strip of Woods Itself. Thin Enuf to perhaps be Able to Park a Car Across! But Definite Woods All the Same!

(I Have a Beautiful View and Memory of a "Crabbing Aircraft in a Crosswind"!, from There! On one Cloudy Late Afternoon. Cool, Autumn Day! It was a Very Deep Crab! A Cessna or a Piper at a Reasonably High Altitude! Higher than you Usually See Them! But Not so High as to Look Like a Dot or Anything either! Beyond just Such a High Angled Crab, He was Proceeding Somewhat Slowly Against the Wind. But Still Not Dangerously Down Near Stalling Speed! You could Tell it Still Had some "Speed Oomph" to it! An All Round Beautiful and Memorable Enuff of a Sight! I Had been into my Aviation Interest Long Enuff, to Know Exactly What the Fellow was Doing! "Ah!, -There's an Instance of Crabbing!", I Thought! "And Quite a Pronouced One at That!" That was my First, or One of my First, Crab Flight Examples I've Witnessed, -and Certainly my Best! Crabbing, for any of you Not so Familiar with Aviation, is Basically an Aircrafts Lean Into and Compensating for the Wind! For a Full or Partial Side Wind, that it's Experiencing. The Velocity of that Wind, also Enterrs into your Correction and Calculations.)

The Berry Field was Surrounded by Acres of Other Woods, on it's Other, Mostly Lower, Sides!

My Picking Days were in the 70s. One of the First Times that I Thereafter Got Back There!, was in 1984. And to at least some of my Surprise!, -It had by Then *All* Grown Back into Woods! It's of course Really Not so Surprising! When you Think About it a Bit. These Things Happen in the Outdoors, Nature, and the Woods!

It was a Little Disapointing that I could No Longer Go Out There to Collect Berries! Which Now would Have also Had a Fondly Sentimental Component!, as Well as a Literally Abundant and Quality Berry Yield!

But Such here was just Naturally the Case! Old Ones Go!, and New Ones Come! Many Remain the Same and Go Nowhere! There of course Remain Plenty of Other Bountiful Berry Locales in Western PA at Berry Time of the Year!

Including Patches within the Woods Itself! These Tend to be the More Sunny, Semi-Wooded Patches! But Not Always! Still, While there may be some Occassional "Pure Woods" Berries (Black or Rasp), -There are No Great and Abundant Berry Fields!, in such Woods! But What Ones you Come Across!, -You Just Know!, to be Purely Unadulterated, Natural! Often as Delicious and Enjoyable as Any Field Ones! And Just the Natural Beauty of Seeing the Brambles, Leaves, Blossoms, Thorns, Fruits, and New Shoots Coming Up thru the Ground in the Spring!

Back There in my Country 70s Days, -I and some Others would Go to this Field, -Usually on Cloudy or "Once Sunny" Summer Evenings! With Still a Good Bit of Daylight Left, Before the Dusk Came On. We'd Hang Around into some of that Dusk! That! The Berrys Themselves! In Their Great and Delicious Abundance! That Great Country Outdoors, Frontier Feeling! One Another's Company in This! All that So Went with the Experience!

You Develop your Little Paths that Crisscross the Field, -Toward Getting At All the Main Berry Concentrations of Note!

Here Too!, -I'd Eat Nearly as Many as I Picked! Right There in the Field Off the Bush!

I Made some Effort to Keep some from "Uselessly" Falling onto the Ground! Largely Out of just the "Principle of the Thing"! Also, Especially when you've Faced some Leaner Times in Life!, You Get into Not Wanting to just Waste Food! The German Side of my Ancestry I' Sure Figures in there too! So you somewhat Try Not to Let Them just Fall to the Ground! The Basket, Your Mouth, and Back Home!, -is What the Objective is! But of course Amid Such Abundance!, -That Doesn't Matter! And so I Really Worried Not, when some would Fall, as I Picked. They'll of course Only Help to Further Propagate the Berry Field!

We'd Take a Bunch Back!, and some of my Sisters, who Helped Pick Them, -would Sugar a Bowl of Them Up! But we also Kept Many Plain as They Were, From the Field! We'd Enjoy Them back at the House, as Dusk Came On! Plenty were Left Over, to Keep in the Fridge! Of course One could Make Good and Delicious Pies!, Out of Such too! "Those Were the Days!, my Friend!...." But So Too are These the Days!, in Other Sorts of Ways! But Unfortunately, I Can't Occassionally Go Out Specifically There!, -to Again So Pick Berries!

Picking Plentiful, Delicious,*Edible* Berries! Of Whatever Safe and Edible Sort! Get a Part of the Experience Yourself!, Sometime if you Can! In the Event you Perhaps Havn't Done so Already! If that would be Something you'd Like!

Of course One has to Keep Certain Basic Safety Considerations in Mind! These basically are Thorns, Edibility, and Thot and Care concerning Roadside Ones, in that They could have Previously been the Recipient of Weedkiller Herbicides! As Well as Possibly Having Taken Up Other Roadside Toxins! But if you can Pretty Well Adjudge that Weedkiller has Not been Applied!, -They Shud be Quite Allright!, -on this Score!

Edible Berries of course also have Great Applicability,-In our Survival and Preparedness World!

We perhaps Can't live on Berries Alone! But we Can Certainly Survive on Them! Provided there be Enuff of Them! The Bear!, while Not Always Living Exclusively on Them!, -Often Lives Largely Off of These and Similar Edible (To It!) Wild Plants! -An Animal as Large and Massive as a Bear! A Bear is of course a Carnivore. But Which just Happens to Eat a Lot of Available Plant Material, as Well!

Delicious Edible Berries of Whatever Sort Suits You! Give It a Go Sometime! Recall your Fond Memories of It as Well! Get Back to It Sometime!, if you've Been Away from It for Awhile! [color:"black"] [/color] [email]ScottRezaLogan[/email]