June is the blueberry month in Houston.This year, I went every weekend and, unfortunately, so did a lot of other people.
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Substantially more than in the previous years, the owner of the blueberry plantation confirmed, with a puzzled look on his face, that he is getting bigger crowds every year even though he does not advertise. It may be due to the blueberry antioxidant craze or simply the fact that at $1.50 a pound it is one of the cheapest fruits around these days.

I used to go in the afternoons. It could be a little bit hot but since you could pick the berries by a handful it did not take long to fill a bucket and it was a nice way to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city. This year, however, it was taking quite a bit longer to get the usual amount and the bushes looked picked over. You could still see big bunches of berries from place to place but you had to look for them. So one Saturday I decided to go early in the morning and arrived at 7:30, half an hour after opening. The parking lot was already full, something I have never seen before. There were definitely more berries to pick but there were also lot more people. Most of them were incessantly talking, either to each other, to themselves, on their cell phones or all at once. Even though I collected my berries a lot faster, the relaxing aspect of the trip was lost and in the future I aimed for the hottest part of the afternoon. Only birds, blueberries and me.

Other than eating berries twice a day, I continue my walking routine and even though I had to slow down a little due to the heat I still manage to get in the usual 12 km. I established several tracks through the neighborhood which I combine in different ways and this in combination with podcasts of Czech, Spanish and French radio I listen to on my shuffle, has nearly eliminated the boredom which would inevitably result from spending over two hours walking the same route every day. We live in an older area with large trees and so I can walk in the shade most of the time, even so, I have learned not to walk before 6 p.m. and so when I get back from work early I go over to the pool, swim about a kilometer and then head out.

And so, almost imperceptibly, between these simple pleasures and the European Football Cup, June just whizzed by.