It's a bird, it's a plane...It's Nature Boy!

No, I'm not referring to my son. Though he does love the outdoors and is learning quite a bit about plants and animals, (I have no choice but to learn so I can answer his many, many questions) I am actually talking about Ernesto who has taken up an interest in weeds (because we have so many) and mowing the lawn. The lawn of weeds, I mean.

Today I was in the back yard with the kids and I was looking for some flowers to cut and put into a vase. We don't get much color up on the hill, mostly small white flowers like daisies, yarrow and campion, things of that nature, but every once in a while I'll find something bright in bloom. Anyway, we were back behind the playhouse and I spotted a big, berry bearing bush (say that 5X fast) and they looked to be blackberries and some of them were perfectly ripe and we went back to the house and got a container and picked all the ripe ones. David was in charge of putting them in the jar, but he ate quite a few. We maybe collected a dozen, if that. During dinner tonight I asked David to tell Daddy what we had found out back and after a few seconds of remembering, David said "Blackberries!" with great enthusiasm. I thought Ernie would be impressed that we'd already brought in a little harvest.

"Blackberries?" Ernie said, looking at me sideways. "Are you sure they were ripe?"

"Well some of them were." Sheesh. I think I can tell when berries are ripe.

David chimes in with, "Mommy said not to eat the red ones. Just the dark ones."

"Are you sure they were blackberries?" Ernie continues. I don't know where he's going with this but I get a little panicky thinking, did I just poison myself and the kids?? Those were edible, right? I mean they tasted really good. Anyway, I could have sworn the neighbors said they used to get blackberries from the previous owners. Are we all going to end up at the E.R. tonight, getting our stomachs pumped?

I must look like I'm getting anxious because Ernie says matter of factly, "Blackberries wouldn't be ripe yet. They must have been black raspberries."

I'm relieved that we didn't eat death berries, but a little weirded out that he seems to know so much about berries. I mean it's been years and years since either of us has lived in the thick nature like this, so how would he know this. Why would he know this?

Later on he takes David up to see our neighbors, Jim and Shirley, while I give Sofia a bath and they come back a bit later, David all smiling because they had given him a Hoodsie cup and he's all chock full of sugary-goodness. He flips out an hour later, but that's another story. Ernie happily reports that he got confirmation from Shirley that it was indeed black raspberries that we picked. So I say, "Oh, did you take a look at the ones we collected?"

"No. I had already determined what they were. I didn't need to look at them."

I thought I had married cowboy-boots-guitar playing-smoking-leather jacket wearing hot guy. I have in fact married Nature Boy. I think he's secretly been this way all along.

Back off ladies. This nerd is taken.