A Walk to Paint and Berries

So I got my dates mixed up and the free theater that I thought was on Saturday is actually today (Sunday). So that meant I had a free day with nothing to do. So I did the usual grocery shopping, cleaning, reading -- free day fill-ins. But that only filled up half the day and I decided I hadn't been up Bernal Heights in a while.While walking up to the hill, I walked into a tagging contest. Hundreds of kids with spray cans painting walls of wood in this little park. I took as many photos as I could before the asphyxiation set in, and I had to leave. How these kids were hanging out for hours working on these I have no idea. A few had masks, but most were just painting. Some of the work was just names, and very boring if you ask me, but some of it was really, really beautiful.Continuing on the walk, I remembered as I turned up to the park, that there are hundreds of blackberry bushes that should be ripe by now. I was helped with this thought by a woman walking ahead of me with her colander. I, of course, was unprepared. So I went on my little hike. On the other side of the hill there were bags for dog owners who forgot a bag and I stole one. O.k. I stole the only one left, but I doubt a dog owner would rely on that and they are very friendly people, so you can always borrow a bag from someone else.
Tips on Blackberry Picking on Public Lands
1. Wear long sleeves and long pants that are not loose (I was wearing short sleeves and a loose skirt -- I did have tall socks on).
2. Move to the area as far away from the path as possible -- this will be less picked over.
3. Be prepared to be scratched (the colander woman was there longer than me and had about half of the berries I picked and that was directly related to her desire to not get scratched -- I now have hundreds of little surface scratches).
4. Only pick blackberries that are totally black -- they should just fall off the bush basically.
5. Don't eat while you pick -- this will limit your haul.

The beauty of berry picking on public lands is that they are free! The negative is that they are not in nice rows that make it easy to pick, they are all bunched up together. I now have a few new holes and some berry stains on my cute brown skirt from Sri Lanka. Oh well.

I baked muffins.