Scenes from the East Coast - Part I (Blueberries!)

I am tired today, full from last week's road trip to my beloved east coast. This week's Productivity Prompt will be posted within the next few days, pinky swear.

In the meantime I leave you with a few snapshots from a favourite outing: a morning blueberry picking expedition with Mom & Dad that quickly became a highlight of my trip...

Off a pickin' we go!

The flowers were pretty...

... and so were the fields.

But oh the berries. Mom said she'd never seen so many - and she's been picking wild blueberries for as long as I can remember!

They were big too, big clusters of gorgeous blue berries.

Our final haul after about an hour and fifteen minutes at work.

That big container on the bottom left alone held four litres.

I'm still gushing at the abundance and grateful that Dad's buddy allowed us to descend on his field by the river. I'm not sure he knows exactly how much of a treat he gave this urbanite visitor from Ontario.

Sometimes the simplest things bring the greatest pleasure.

Road Trip!

This sad little scribbled crumpled up piece of paper has been guiding my every waking moment for the past three days:

pre-road trip to-do list

It's my pre-trip to-do list. The items with the X's didn't make the final cut (as if I'd have the time to bulk freeze corn and strawberries).

Tomorrow morning I fill up the travel mug, load up the car and head east to the land of the moose, my Acadian roots and the salty sea air. I'm heading home to New Brunswick.

It's my first solo trip there in a few years, the last time I drove on my own was during my sabbatical in 2006. It's a 12-hour trip one-way split over two days.

D.'s making me two CDs for the occasion: one full of sing-at-the-top-of-your-lungs disco tunes and another with surprise road trip tunes of his choosing. They'll come in handy during the two hours spent crossing central New Brunswick through the mountains and the woods where radio signals just don't make it through.

I look forward to what's waiting for me on the other side of those mountains though - family, the sea, and Mom's chocolate chip cookies. What more could a girl ask for.

~~~

Note: I'll be celebrating my beloved Fête des Acadiens on Acadian soil on Monday, but rest assured that next week's Productivity Prompt post will be up as planned. I may even have a few more goodies for you here later in the week so keep visiting!