Not long ago, Lillian and I went out, driving around, just looking, exploring the area. It's one of my favorite activities, and I really wish that gas prices were low enough to allow us to do it more often, even though I know it's bad for the environment.
I find myself looking out at the trees, and with very little effort I can see how the land looked before we got here and put up housing developments and strip malls. It's so easy to see how someone rode up over a hill and saw water sparkling in the distance, the mountains covered with snow, Ranier shining in pinks and oranges as the sun sets. It's really beautiful up here, and it's still fairly exotic to me, having grown up in the desert.
And berries! Berry picking is quite the thing here. There are whole farms where you can pick your own, and blackberries grow wild. In fact, they're considered a nuisance, and if you doubt me, you should ask Lillian about them, especially during the summer when she has to hack her way through them. My girl wields a mean machete! And my co-worker, Tammy, makes jam to die for.
There are all kinds of berries up here I'd never heard of, and it's been tons of fun trying them. Lingonberries, loganberries, marionberries, tayberries. We had an unfortunate run-in with a wild loganberry pie last summer, and we've become addicted to tayberry jam.
And there are lavender farms up here. There's even a lavender festival, and one of our customers brought me lavender candy from it, since she knows I love the stuff (and apparently I'm in a serious minority here, but that's fine, more for me), and the smells are amazing.
So, one of these Sundays in the not-too-distant future, I'm looking forward to another trip through the countryside, seeing what we see. I'll take pictures, I promise!
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