Goodbye, cruel world! I've done my DUty for the day . . .

[Heidi]

and now I'm going into the woods to pick blackberries! (Really! It's a beautiful morning and the first blackberries of the season are ripe for pickin'!)

Pie report tomorrow . . .

[Wetzelbill]

1. you are damn lucky

I need to move back out into the country. :)

[Heidi]

2. My raspberries this year were just great . . .

despite the fact that they were a special thornless variety when I bought and planted them. Then, our next door neighbors built a granite wall along the property line, and hacked down my beautiful thornless raspberries. When the bushes came back, they had thorns!

:hi:

[Wetzelbill]

3. we used to go up to a park

along the Rocky Mountains and pick huckleberries and chokecherries. Oh, heaven.

[Heidi]

4. Blackberries have a special place in my heart.

When I was a kid, I used to go stay with my grandparents in northeastern Oklahoma for a while every summer. My granny would give me a gallon bucket, spray me with "OFF" and send me into the woods to gather berries for pie, cobbler and jelly. I'd come home all scratched up, sunburned and covered with chiggers (which apparently are immune to off) and help her in the kitchen. Good times.

[XemaSab]

5. chiggers are unkind

I cannot fathom using "chiggers" and "good times" in any proximity to one another.

[Heidi]

6. Chiggers sometimes are the price of pie.

Fortunately, we don't have chiggers in southern Switzerland . . . just blackberries as big as the end of your thumb. YUM!

[Wetzelbill]

7. oh that sounds so good

I may have to come visit in that case. :)

[Heidi]

8. You'll never find me, though.

Because I'm hiding in the "hugs from Heidi" thread. :rofl:

[Wetzelbill]

9. oh I see somebody is a comedian

I take it my hiding place wasn't the best spot. :) I admit that now.

(man, I just got zinged, that was a good one) :)

[Heidi]

10. I'm sorry, 'bill.

Really. I didn't mean to zing you. :pals:

[Wetzelbill]

12. it's ok I walked right into it

:):toast:

[XemaSab]

11. if that's the choice

I will forgo the pie...

I have 2 scars from south carolina and 1 scar from texas, and one of the scars STILL ITCHES 4 years later.

[Heidi]

13. Have you ever been bitten by sand fleas?

That's the longest-lasting itch I've ever had. (Thank you, Florida, land of the damned.) Lasted about six months. :cry:

[XemaSab]

14. OW! NO!

When are they active? And are there LOTS????

At one time I counted 180 chigger bites. That was itchy.