Matthew, Jack and I went blackberry picking up in Tilden Park this morning. While picking a lush bush, I noticed some dirt fly up from the field ahead.

We went to investigate.

We saw a gopher poking his snout out of a hole then scurrying back. We did a test. We placed a blackberry to the outside of his hole and waited. He took the bait.He popped partway out, grabbed the blackberry, and went back down his hole.

Let the games begin!

We rolled one, two, ten blackberries into his hole, and he grabbed every one of them, scurrying back into his hole, to, we imagined, a well stocked pantry.

It was raining blackberrries! I was sorry I didn’t have a video to share the gopher madness with others. On the other hand, I had gotten Matthew and Jack up to Tilden, away from the computer screens, and it was the happiest we’d been all day.