Very Berry Mountain!

The berries are ripe on Big Mountain.  I've taken a break from Glacier Park, working at school a little, and picking Huckleberries a lot!  This is a banner year for hucks, and there is a bumper crop up there. As all good huck-pickers, I won't divulge my special picking spot, or admit to how many GALLONS I have in the freezer (at least here on-line), but we'll be able to taste summer all winter!

Sometimes they are really blue, like a blueberry:

Sometimes they are almost black:

 Sometimes they are in among lovely green leaves:

 And sometimes the leaves are spotted:

Or even turning color:

They make really tasty "ants on a log" for lunch:

And you get really sticky fingers by the end of the day:

In addition to the huckleberries, there are other berries on the mountain--the bears can have those, I don't care.   You may remember the flower of Twisted Stalk from an earlier post; now the berries are orange and dangling so artistically:

I don't know if animals eat the berries on the Devil's Club, but they are striking in the green forest:

I've been eating the Thimbleberries that are ready.  You can't really gather them unless you snipped off the whole top, so I just pull off the red part and pop it in my mouth!

The Goldenrod is lovely and the Fireweed is just about blooming and going to seed.  It has been so fun to sit perched up on the mountain above the Flathead Valley and collecting treasures!

Sigh.....back to school tomorrow.  Stay tuned for further adventures....