I meant to have this posted earlier. but certain people don’t really appreciate how selfish I can be.  And they’re right.  I mean really – a whole 5 minutes to myself every few weeks is an awful lot to ask.  Poor Oona.  She’s sleeping now after a nice evening ride in the car.  But this post isn’t about my sleepy Oona.  It’s all about cherries.

Yesterday my friend Veronica and I took our collective kids and drove an hour out into the country to a new cherry orchard.  It got kind of scary for the last 10 minutes or so of the drive as we ventured further and further into nowhere and the roads got increasingly bad (as in we left pavement, then left gravel, then practically left dirt as well).  There was a brief fun moment when we passed slowly by a large bull grazing in the road.  He was almost as big as my van.  Then the crater – filled “road” mercifully turned and we were there  (let’s not forget that as used to farms and country as I am, being from the upstate portion, Veronica and I are aat heart still New York gals).   The view was worth it.

See the Blue Ridge Mountains in the distance?

The girls simply could not wait to get their bags and get down to some serious picking.  So we globbed on the sunscreen, got our bearings from the nice lady at the farm stand and headed into the trees.

Oona squeaked along with Veronica and Natalie.

And there they were – trees and trees of luscious cherries.  And nice wooden ladders to schlep around to each one (told you I was from NY.  Can’t have too many “y’alls” around these parts without the occasional “Oy” or “schmutz” or what have you).

Oona kept Natalie and Amy busy, and I kept getting confused by Veronica talking to Amy.  No, I’m not tired.  No, I don’t need to pee…..oh wait you meant your kid.

Neve was busy accusing me of “hogging the ladder”.  Not that she helped carry it from tree to tree or anything.

She did enjoy sampling.

My monkey Emily couldn’t tolerate me climbing higher than her.  It’s too bad she didn’t have a camera  – her view across the valley was much better than mine.

I think we stayed about 2 hours before the kids had had enough and were hot and hungry.  We had our haul weighed (Veronia bagged about 15 lbs, I bagged about 12 lbs), bought some cold drinks and headed home.  Oona was out like a light, the older girls sang cartoon theme songs all the way and Veronica and I admitted to liking The Nanny with Fran Drescher (hint: the handsome Englishman doesn’t hurt.)

Tomorrow I plan to make a pie and some muffins.  The rest we’ll eat as is.  If not for the hour drive I’d go back this week for more.  Cherry season is all too short.  But there’s light on the horizon – the peaches at the local orchard will be ready for picking the first week of July.  I am SO there!!!