Blueberries on the Beach

A love note to August

It slips by so quickly, and yet the month of August always feels so full. Fresh berries, peaches, warm swims. I want to freeze it momentarily, to hold onto how it feels. The sunshine, the cool nights, the kids falling asleep on the drive home from the beach.

When I look back on this summer, my first with two children, I will remember it as the berry-picking summer. Strawberries in June, followed by raspberries we discovered in the front yard of our new house. We checked the bushes in the evenings during July after our nightly walks. I meant to make jam, but we always ate the raspberries by the handful before we made it in the house. One night, we walked down a favorite beach path, snacking on wild raspberries planted by the birds along the way.