Berry Picking

Mikayla called this morning and told me she was going to take Cora berry picking while Brick was at pre-school.  Did I want to come?  I like berries, I like Mikayla and Cora, and I like jam that you make from berries, so I said yes.  Here's the thing.  It was threatening rain.  The sky was very overcast and the clouds low, but I really didn't think it would rain.  I had checked the weather app on my phone and it said there was only a 35% chance of rain, and in Utah, that generally means it won't really rain at all.  

So off we went.  We dropped Brick off and then drove to Mapleton to McBride's Briar Patch.  As we arrived, it began to sprinkle, but we were undeterred.  We knocked on Mr. McBride's door and I am confident we rousted him from bed.  He stumbled to the door, doing up buttons, and looked rather surprised to see anyone there.  He told us he would meet us around the side of the house and get us buckets, and the rain picked up just a bit.  Mr. McBride got us each a bucket, even a small pink one for Cora, and suggested some rows we could start picking on.  Then he went back in the house because the rain was getting heavier.  

For approximately ten minutes we picked berries, and for all ten minutes it rained.  It wasn't a sprinkle, it was an honest to goodness rain.  And it kept getting heavier.  It was raining so hard, water was dripping off the end of my nose.  We gave up after the ten minutes, having picked two dollars worth of berries.  I was embarrassed to have brought Mr. McBride outside.  He rolled his eyes at us more than once, and I didn't blame him at all.  

We did get enough berries to make four pints of raspberry freezer jam, and I suppose that makes the trip worth it.   It's too bad you can't tell from the pictures just how much rain really was falling.