Thursday, August 16, 2012

{p,h,f,r}: The Orchard Edition

One of my favorite things about the summer is the abundance, the fecundity.  Everything is dark green and growing and ripening.  

I took the children to one of our favorite orchards recently, where, with the help of the beloved GeeGee, we got some delicious peaches.  And by delicious, I mean you will never find anything like what we picked off the tree in any grocery store anywhere. Ever.  These peaches tasted like you were biting into a piece of sunshine.  

The orchard has a family friendly weekly story time, where the children listen to a story and then go out into the orchard to pick whatever fruit happens to be ripe that week.  This farm grows just about everything, from apples and peaches to quince and blackberries and anything in between.  We go in every season except the dead of winter.



Fiver, a true peach devotee, was the first to fill his box.  The "orchard lady" (as Sally called her) told the kids they could probably fit 7-9 peaches in their boxes. Fiver got 11.


Francie helped Bun, who managed to have several orchard related mishaps that led to a couple of bloody knees and his greatly diminished enthusiasm for the actual picking.


Sally doesn't love peaches, which seems odd since she enjoys eating just about everything else, but she loves the farm and being outdoors.  She disappeared in the trees with GeeGee and came out with a box full of peaches. She told me, "I don't like to eat them, but I sure like picking them."  Then she thanked the "orchard lady" for letting her pick fruit that she doesn't even eat.  She's one a million.


"Tyger! tyger! burning bright/ In the forests of the night,/ What immortal hand or eye/Could frame thy fearful symmetry  . . ."     That's Mopsy for you.

 Poor Bun.  He wiped out on the hill up to the trees and managed to scrape up both knees.  Then he tripped on a fallen peach hidden in the grass and hit his head on the trunk of the tree.  Beware the hazards of pick-your-own fruit!!

Plus it was hot.  Really, really hot.  Or maybe he's just in mourning for the sad, sad state of his Phillies this year.

Of course, as is always the case, not everything was idyllic.  There was a lot of the usual whining (did I mention the +90 temps?) and spilling of drinks and running from bees and herding of cats that comes with the territory.  But this is {p,h,f,r} so I'm just ignoring all that.  It's not the important part anyway.

The important part was being together in a lovely place full of God's goodness.  And riding down the orchard hill in the bed of GeeGee's truck.  The kids thought that was pretty awesome too.

Head over to see how some other nice folks enjoy pretty, happy, funny, real times.



4 comments:

  1. Anonymous1:38 PM

    I cannot wait for apple pickin' time with that gang!! I would take off from work just for it!!

    Love, Juju

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  2. GeeGee7:44 AM

    It sure was a hot day, but the kids were great! There was no whining. Bun had a few tears and moans, but they were ligitimate and short-lived. The farm was crowded since, as previously mentioned, it was story/picking and cooking class day. The little market store was crowded but the kids were patient. The store employees were also very gracious about our spilled fruit slushie. (Hey these things happen when people are bumping elbows!) From the farm we headed straight to lunch and I am proud to say that my granchildren were the best-behaved kids in the place. Truly, they all sat patiently and quietly at their places doodling on thier placemats until lunch was served. Then they all cleared their plates (even Bun who is not the most enthusiastic eater). When their mother told them they could not have the super-duper sundaes,there was no backtalk or long faces. They each enjoyed their modest scoop of ice cream in a dish. It was a wonderful day! We kissed goodbye in the parking lot and off they went to show Dad their peach haul...Thank you to Aimee for being such a good sport and a great mom....

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  3. Peaches are wonderful, and yes, picking them (or going on other kinds of outings) in the heat is hard! I love that GeeGee defended them :) Thanks for joining!

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  4. This is so sweet and I love GeeGee's take on the day :)

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