Cherries

I went to Bentwood with my parents and my niece to pick cherries yesterday.

It was really really crowded, we got stuck in traffic several times. (Crawling traffic at that.) Also it has been a cold spring here so while the cherries are normally ripe by late May this year many orchards where not open yet.

So it took us a long time to get to an open orchard, and we were all getting grumpy and hungry waiting. We did finally get in, but the orchard was really crowded.

I followed my niece and helped her look for cherries low enough for her to pick. She stayed focused on that for a while and we picked a lot of cherries. Then she wanted to climb the ladder, that my dad was using. So we climbed the ladder (I followed her up). Then she didn't really want to pick anymore, so I followed her around, and after a bit realized that we where lost. That scared me a bit. Orchards can be disorienting. However after wandering around a bit longer we found my parents.

Soon after that we decided we had enough cherries and went to buy them. That was crowded and confusing too, and we never got to talk with someone long enough to find out what varietal we had picked. After buying my dad went to get the car and the rest of us waited. This was when my niece decided it would be a good time to run (and I mean run) off. I followed her (at a slower pace) into the orchard as she ran between the rows. Eventually i got her back to the car, which was waiting by them, and strapped her in while several people from the orchard complained that we where holding up traffic.

Then we drove home and delivered my niece and many cherries to my sister. We picked 22lbs of cherries, and seeing then on my sisters table made me realize just how much that is.

It was good day, but I was tried at the end of it.