You say "Huckle!" I say "Berry!" HUCKLE! BERRY! HUCKLE! BERRY!

I have to admit - I didn't have high hopes for today. I mean how could I? Yesterday was... well... typical. Cold, wet, kinda boring.... But today - today was different!

Today was beautiful. Clear blue skies. Warm sun on my skin (even through the sweatshirt). Got to take Milli on the longest walk shes been on in weeks. But best of all - there they were - in all their glory - beautiful, blackish-blue orbs of awesome - the huckleberries.

Come to find out, we have quite a few huckleberry plants right here, practically in our "backyard." The most prolific species being the Evergreen Huckleberry. Coming in at an extremely scarce second, the Red Huckleberry.

It took me a while to identify the evergreen type - I mean, I'm not just gonna pop any ole berry into this mouth - there are very few pictures of the evergreen variety on the internet. Luckily for me, they are a rather unique plant, er shrub. Alternating, serrated, leaves, on each stem, stems that create a plant that's rarely as tall as I am. This part, easy enough to look up - the part that threw me was the difference in berries.... See, the exact same looking plant, with the exact same leaves and patters would have dramatically different berries on them! Most often a blackish, smooth, clear orb would be present. But about one out of every five, would have this lighter blue, cloudy berry on it..... weird? Yes.

In the middle of the picture you can

KINDA see some lightish blue berries,

whereas on the very right edge of the pic you

can see some really dark black ones....

Come to find out - that's just how they roll. Some are black, some are blue, and you never know which plant will grow which berry, until the berries appear! Mystery solved - time to eat!

During our walk to, up and around, Island Lake park, Milli and I collected about a cups worth of berries. Yup. One. Cup. And we were walking for about an hour. We got mostly the black berries, about 1/4 cloudy blue ones and 3 red ones.... yes 3. Milli didn't really help much - she wasn't so into the waiting around patiently while I stared at a plant, trying to adjust my eyes. In fact, by pulling on the leash, she made me drop more than I collected in the beginning.

 This is Milli about 20 minutes after getting home.

I think I can safely say our walk wore her out!

Honestly though, I didn't mind Milli's "help." Having her around makes me feel just A LITTLE less weird - making people think I'm walking the dog... instead of stalking the plants....