Impeccable timing

When it comes to dishing up snack food, it's tough to beat the all-day policy of this Quebec City eatery. (I snapped the menu photo while on holiday last month.)

Yup, no better time for a snack than anytime-you-feel-like-it o'clock.  :-)

'Tis the season

Slam Newfoundland & Labrador all you will for ornery weather and for being miserly in doling out summer, but you can't beat the place when it comes to berries. Especially blueberries. The beasts are plump, plentiful and practically at your doorstep -- even if you live in downtown St. John's, as I do.

Look, here's proof:

Aside from blueberries, this tasty snack included a:

• scoop of frozen yogurt
• spoonful of dark-chocolate chips
• sprinkle of walnuts
• splash of soy milk.

Fresh, sweet and yum-yum-yummy. Almost good for you, too, so I'm told.  :-)

Practically as thrilling as the dressed treat, of course, is the hunt. I bagged this lot of berries yesterday, with the help of a friend, who had gotten the inside track on a "top secret" location.

How we whooped it up at finding the place. This reaction was partly from glee, at having navigated with only a scrawled map, and partly from relief -- on our last outing together, during the previous summer, we lost our way more than once.

But back to the berries. Baby, did we hit the motherload; the woods shimmered in wall-to-wall blue. A mere couple of hours saw our baskets brimming -- and that was allowing time for chatting, sipping homemade lemonade, munching chocolate-covered almonds, and nibbling the odd handful from our blueberry harvest.

What's not to love about berry picking? Fine exercise, reconnecting with nature, sharing (mis)adventures with a friend.

Yes, picking berries is a fabulous deal, however you tally it. For the investment of one afternoon and a few tablespoons of gasoline, I now have a week's worth of fresh fruit sitting on the bottom shelf of my fridge. Whoo-hoo.