Travel connects people and countries in many different ways.  Recently we have been picking Michigan blueberries with friends and that got me to thinking about the many places we have picked or eaten blueberries, a plant that can be tame and tall or wild and small.

It grows  five feet tall, pampered and irrigated in a sunny patch surrounded by woods near us where I took my small children to pick 40 years ago.  In the cool, early morning the dew glistened on the violet berries and the birds sang from the woods.  My two year old son liked to pick just the ones as big as the end of his thumb, which he promptly ate.  He found these by walking under the arching branches.  My 4-year-old daughter, hair in pigtails, diligently tried to fill her plastic milk jug tied about her waist, but she and I popped quite a few berries into our mouths, too.  I baked the remaining berries into pies. More »