It is blueberry time again! My friend Ginni brought me some a few days ago and I’ve been putting a few each day on the morning cereal. They have been removed from the “no-no” food list and that was happy news.

I like to “stew up” a few with a little sugar and keep the sauce in a jar. It’s great on ice cream, and on pancakes or waffles. One nice thing about blueberries is that the season is longer than that of some other berries.

In Maine this time of year, the fields where low blueberry bushes grow take on a haze of the blue color when the berries ripen. Housewives whip up blueberry muffins by the dozen and pies are a frequent dessert at the dinner table.

About now the Paula Red apples are ripe in Vermont. They are my favorite. By late September they are about gone. Laurie came unexpectedly this past weekend and will probably come again for the late summer birthdays. Perhaps she can bring some Paula Reds. Sometimes they are available around here, but they aren’t as good as the ones we get up north.

Some blackberries will be ripening in the pastures and fields. They make some of the best-ever jelly.

One summer when I was spending vacation time at a farm in Monroe, we took buckets and a little lunch and headed for a nearby blackberry lot. It was also the daytime pasture for the family’s cows. We tried to find places to pick berries in spots away from the cows. They are curious though, and would come ambling along to see what we were doing. We managed to shake the berry bushes and the best and ripest berries would fall off. Some of the other pickers were afraid of these big, placid animals and would run and relocate their picking area.

Laurie trimmed bushes and cut back the ivy that was creeping over the path and potted some plants that have waited all summer to be taken care of. It is an improvement. She did some grocery shopping and the day she was to go home she started with a mean summer cold. I feel badly that her weekend ended that way.

Routines have been disrupted here all summer. First a company began installing new cable for TV, both inside and outside. Our televisions have been off and on and many complaints are heard. Then, that was about over when a paving company began to tear up the roads and then pave them. It has been difficult to get in and out and very inconvenient. We will all be glad when things get back to normal.

Merwin Lodge, now a resident of Texas, has been sending me some great things for the Historical Society in Monroe, things he has saved from his past. Some photographs are real treasures and other items are so very welcome. When people are thoughtful enough to give parts of history where they belong, we say a heartfelt thank you. Without such thoughtfulness, we would not have bits of our history to preserve for future generations.

The column last week ended with words of wisdom from naturalist John Burroughs.

Who said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has”?