Magic berries. Magic berries: Fairy tale Fairy tale magic berries author

Lyubov Kirsanova

One day the berries gathered for a ceremonial meeting - a ball. They came Barberry, Hawthorn and Lingonberry, Grapes, Cherry, Blueberry, Blackberry and Strawberry, Viburnum, Gooseberry, Strawberry and Cranberry, Raspberry, Cloudberry and Rowanberry, Currant, Cherry and Blueberry, Mulberry, Rosehip and many others. Everyone was very surprised by the appearance of Watermelon and Tomato, but unexpected guests reported that according to scientists, tomato and watermelon are full-fledged berries!
At the meeting, the meeting participants discussed the growing importance of berries, their use in medicine, cooking, and cosmetics. A common thread in the reports of the meeting participants was the idea: “everyday consumption of berries is a guarantee of health!”
After the meeting, a banquet took place. The berries sat at the tables, talked, feasted on pies with berry fillings, and raised glasses with berry juices for peace and friendship, for each other’s health. Everyone was in a great mood!
Suddenly Malina came forward so that everyone could hear her:
- People love me more than all other berries! I am the sweetest and most fragrant! It’s not for nothing that they say: “Motherland is a raspberry!
Then she looked slyly and sarcastically at Kalina and added:
- And they also say: “Chuzhbina-Kalina”!
All the berries were speechless, because just now they were sitting at the tables in peace, talking peacefully, and suddenly there was a quarrel.
And Kalina got angry:
- What are you saying? My berries are beautiful, juicy, although their taste is a little bitter, but the bitterness disappears after frost. People use my berries to make juices, liqueurs, and prepare pie filling. And people use me in medicine! And how beautiful I am! Everyone admires the bunches of viburnum against the background of white snow!
Malina grinned:
- And my berries are fragrant, juicy, and sweet. People use them to make jam, jelly, marmalade, and juices. And what delicious raspberry wines and liqueurs! And in medicine I am widely used. I am the most beautiful and elegant!
Raspberry and viburnum argued for a long time, it almost came to a fight. Other berries separated them, pulled them apart, and calmed them down.
Fortunately, Vinograd guessed, came forward and said in a loud, sonorous voice:
- It's time to start the ball, call the musicians!
And the musicians have long been ready, their instruments have been tuned. The accordion began to play and the balalaikas chimed in:

There is a raspberry in the garden, my raspberry!

All the berries sang along in unison and did not notice how they started dancing.
We listened to this soulful song Kalina and Malina and couldn’t stand it - we smiled, hugged, made peace to the delight of each other and all the berries, and started dancing!
The berries sang and danced for a long time, “Barynya” and “Quadrille” were danced, round dances were performed, and Kalina and Malina had the most fun of all.
Since then they have lived in peace and harmony, because they are sung about in one of the most popular and beloved Russian folk songs!
The accordion plays, an old but eternally young song sounds, and the legs start dancing of their own accord!:
- Kalinka, Kalinka, my Kalinka!
There is a raspberry in the garden, my raspberry!..”

The Russian forest is rich in berries. Strawberries grow on a sunny hillock, stone fruit berries grow red like beads along the paths, and blueberries nestle on the slopes.

In the northern latitudes, “their” berries dominate. They are rich, bright colors - cranberries, which are popularly called “swamp medicine”, lingonberries,

winking at us with her red eyes, like small round corals.

In the tundra, in the damp forests of Siberia, in the Far East, blueberries have found their refuge. Blueberries love northern peat bogs. Blueberries are eaten fresh, and the same desserts can be made from this wild berry as from blueberries: marshmallows, jam, preserves. When dried, blueberries can be stored for several years without losing their valuable properties.

In the European part, cloudberries grow in moss bogs. Cloudberry is a very frost-resistant plant. Its height is ten to twenty centimeters, the plant has a creeping rhizome. Cloudberries ripen in July-August. Cloudberry fruits contain healthy sugars, citric and malic acids, vitamin C, carotene, and in small quantities tannins. Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin had a very favorable attitude towards cloudberries. He just ate it by the handful. Fresh cloudberries, soaked cloudberries, and cloudberry pie were the great poet’s best dessert dishes.

After the duel with Dantes, when Alexander Sergeevich’s condition was critical, the poet asked for cloudberries. As if I felt that this simple Russian berry would turn out to be magical. Unfortunately, the poet's wounds turned out to be fatal.

Raspberries are a small but sweet wild berry that will not leave anyone indifferent. It is impossible to pass by a raspberry bush and not try a juicy berry. Birds often feast on wild raspberries, and of course, the owner of the wilderness is the bear.

Be careful with blackberries! Its branches are covered with prickly thorns; it is rare that anyone manages to eat their fill of blackberries and leave without being scratched. Blackberries resemble raspberries in appearance, but are more prolific. What color are blackberries? And it comes in different colors: yellow, black, red. Blackberries love moisture and shade. Telling your friends, “I’ve finally eaten my fill of blackberries,” is nearly impossible. Because after a short time you want to enjoy this beautiful berry again.

Iga grows in a number of forest areas. Forest serviceberry is an excellent delicacy for children and adults. The bird brethren know as well as people that irga is sweet and healthy.

Wild berries are a healthy and tasty addition to our diet. Forest gifts contain a large amount of vitamins our body needs. As well as other valuable components, the use of which is of great importance for strengthening our health and maintaining vitality.

Once upon a time there lived an Apple tree. She lived amicably with Man, gave a rich harvest of her fruits - apples. The man looked after the Apple Tree, and she fed him. But one day a Man got lazy. He stopped growing apples, stopped caring for the Apple Tree. The Apple Tree was offended, upset and decided to leave the Man. She decided to make a decision, but she was very kind and could not leave him. I thought about it, wondered what to do, and decided to hide.

The Man saw that the Apple Tree was missing, but did not attach any importance to it. “I can live without her,” I thought. The man lives - he does not grieve, he lies down and basks in the sun.

But trouble came. The Man’s health began to fail. Either your heart tingles or your tummy hurts. The face became pale and haggard. Wrinkles ran in different directions.

A Man sits, grieves, but cannot understand anything. The Apple Tree saw this and took pity on him. She came out of her hiding place, gave him her apples and began to teach:

Eh, you stupid little head! He got lazy, became pampered, and stopped paying attention to me. But my apples are not ordinary, they are magical. They contain a lot of vitamins: vitamin A, vitamin C, and vitamin B. Many useful substances: calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium. And organic acids and iron. There is also pectin and fiber. Everything for your health: for your tummy, heart, head, skin, body and face.

The Man realized that he had acted badly. Don't do that to your friends. I asked Yablonka for forgiveness. And they began to live together again in harmony, as before, to take care of each other.

It’s just a pity that Yablonka’s resentment didn’t just go away. She hid and crawled like a snake into the very heart of the apple. And since then, in every apple seed there has been hidden a bitter resentment, dangerous for Man. Remember: eat the magic apple, but don’t touch the seeds, throw them away.

This is where the fairy tale ends, and whoever listened - well done!

Shamaeva Irina, 2 “B” class

Inseparable friends

In one far, far away fruit and vegetable country, there lived two brothers - Orange and Lemon. Orange was kind and cheerful, but Lemon was sour and couldn’t laugh at all. Orange did everything he could to cheer up his brother: he sang funny ditties to him, told him jokes, and even showed him cartoons about Smesharikov. No, nothing helped!

So one day they went for a walk. They are walking along Vegetable Street and suddenly they see a girl sitting on a bench and crying bitterly. Orange approached her and asked: “Why are you, girl, crying so bitterly? Who hurt you?". And the girl replies: “How can I not cry! Grandpa Luk asked me to help him take off his fur coat, so I helped, and now I’m shedding tears!” The orange tells her: “Here, take my sweet slice, eat it - and everything will pass.” The girl took a slice, ate it and immediately stopped crying. “Well, there you go, I told you so!” - exclaimed good Orange.

Suddenly the girl turned to Lemon and said: “You are so beautiful and, probably, also very tasty?” Lemon, although embarrassed by such a compliment, immediately broke off a slice and handed it to the girl. Having put a slice in her mouth, the girl suddenly began to make such faces that you wouldn’t see even in the funniest cartoon! She wrinkled her nose so that she looked like a hippopotamus, a hedgehog, a little pig, or even some kind of Miracle Yudo. And our Lemon, looking at her, laughed so much that, clutching his stomach from laughter, he fell onto the grass and let’s roll on it!..

This is how our Lemon learned to laugh. True, he remained just as sour, but he became very cheerful and even useful. After all, laughter is the best medicine! And the girl really liked her new friends. Now the three of them are inseparable friends.

Mishkina Mila, 2 “B” class

DISPUTE

Vegetables and fruits met
And they began to find out
Who are the best products?
And, in order to resolve the dispute, they decided to complete the game.
Started playing volleyball
To score goals for each other.
But in the end friendship won,
Since everyone needs to take vitamins,
Because the body needs all vitamins
And equally important.

Graditsky Nikita, 2 “B” class.

Citrus family

One day a tree grew in a clearing, and no one knew what kind of tree it was. So, after one year, an orange grew, one. Strange, isn't it?
He was fast asleep. But suddenly the twig crunched, the orange woke up and fell to the ground. It hurt him a lot. Orange finally got up, looked around, looked at the tree and realized that he was alone in the tree, and indeed in the entire clearing. He decided to travel. He walked and walked and climbed the mountain. I saw orange at home.
They seemed small from such a distance. But poor Orange lost his balance and rolled down the mountain towards the city. He rolled across the road and suddenly stopped. Orange heard a noise. He saw a supermarket and went there. There were a lot of people in it. Orange saw the box and climbed onto it. He looked into the box. There were a lot of tangerines there. Another box contained large, strong grapefruits.
- Hey you! Are you sleeping? - asked Orange.
All the tangerines woke up and began to mutter. And the grapefruits snored, but woke up from the noise of the tangerines.
- What are you doing here? - asked Orange.
“We live here,” said the Mandarin.
- And they sell us! – added the Mandarin.
Orange says sadly:
- And I’m looking for a family, wandering around the world. I feel lonely.
- Can I come with you? – Grapefruit asked.
- What about us? - asked the Mandarin and Mandarin.
- Certainly! - Orange was delighted.
Grapefruit, Mandarin, Mandarin and Orange ran towards the exit.
- I have relatives in the garden. Lemon and lime are two brothers,” said Grapefruit.
- How good! I have many relatives! - said Orange.
Everyone followed Grapefruit. They climbed over the fence and saw a tree with lemons. There was another tree nearby, only the lemons were green, and they were called limes. Before the citrus fruits had time to meet, the girl Julia grabbed them. She squeezed the juice out of them, drank them and didn’t get sick all year!

Pyatlina Ekaterina, 3 “B” class

Compote.

One day Vanya and Nastya went to the dacha. It was hot and the children were thirsty. Mom suggested they collect berries for compote. The children went to pick berries.

The guys began to pick cherries. Vanya climbed the tree, and Nastya was collecting below. Vanya asked his mother: “What are the benefits of cherries?” Mom said that cherry fruits contain various acids, microelements, macroelements, pectin substances, sugar, various vitamins, folic acid. Cherry relieves thirst well and has antiseptic properties.

Then the children began to pick apples. Nastya asked her mother: “What are the benefits of apples?” Mom said that they contain many vitamins and minerals and are useful for headaches, anemia, arthritis, and rheumatism.

Then Vanya saw strawberries and began picking them together with Nastya. The children were picking strawberries and asked their mother: “What are the benefits of strawberries?” Mom replied that strawberries contain sugar, carotene, essential oil, and various acids. Used for colds and anemia. It is very tasty and low in calories.

Then mom sent the kids to pick pears. Mom explained that pears contain vitamins, potassium, iron, copper, pectin, fiber and tannins. Pear strengthens the immune system, relieves inflammation, and fights infections.

The children picked a lot of berries and gave them to their mother, and the mother made compote. It was tasty and healthy.

Student works

=Berry Tale=

SEA ​​BUCKTHORN
The berry is rich in its taste and healing content, pleasing to the eye with a bright yellow-red dense scattering along hard spiky branches, densely dotted with green-silver narrow leaves, not allowing anyone passage in places of its abundant growth. So the girl came out with fiery hair and the same by no means gentle disposition - lively, with a caustic tongue, with her nose always turned up. Those who have ever collected sea buckthorn remember the painful pricks of its thorns and the burning tingling sensation from the juice that got into the wounds. That’s why we had to adapt and take care of our hands when collecting. Many people use special wire hooks for this. The gray shrike, a small bird the size of a thrush, but a very warlike bird that deftly hunts grasshoppers and even larger game - rodents, birds and lizards, likes to place its prey on the thorns of thorny bushes. And between the sea buckthorn thickets themselves, roe deer often hide, and their rut occurs in late summer and early autumn. Alarmed either by the presence of a person or by an approaching thunderstorm, males with neat horns make anxious barking sounds and follow their friends to other secluded places.

BLACK CURRANT
Black currant is seen in a completely opposite way to its red sister. And she loves damper places, and her clusters are shorter, and they hang on the bush for a long time, even after frost. And what an unforgettable, special taste of its berries! And who doesn’t know this amazing invigorating spirit emanating from its leaf, with which they love to season a real forest drink! I decided to give the image itself a sad, slightly gloomy and witchcraft look. It is emphasized by the deaf riverine spruce forests, and the thick fog over the beaver pond, whose hardworking owners are busy storing branches for the winter, and the tiger-footed owl who caught a gaping vole, also personifying witchcraft and darkness. And yet, the general oppressive ugliness of this forest wilderness is diluted by the gold of crumbling birch leaves and the black pearls of poured currant berries, which will still have time to please forest inhabitants or humans with their taste.

RASPBERRIES
Raspberries grow most abundantly in burnt areas and clearings, where it is convenient to collect them. Those who did this remember the clouds running overhead, and the wind swaying the pink waves of fireweed inflorescences, and the trunks and small snags insidiously lurking in the tall grass, trying to trip up the raspberries, and the stench of elegant stink bugs examining the raspberries, and the snare large spiders, sometimes falling on the hand, causing ancient fear and disgust, and small crimson thorns piercing the palms or thighs, and, of course, the eternal desire to put the fragrant berry itself more often in the mouth than in a basket, jar or other container. And someone came across the “furry berry picker” himself - a terribly hungry bear for raspberries, who in most cases ran away at his heels, scared no less than a two-legged berry picker. And at the time of flowering, the bees take a good bribe from the raspberries. Among the Slavs, perhaps, this is the most revered berry, giving sweetness to the lips, and heat and strength to the sick body. Its color is songfully called sunrise and sunset, the shade of elegant fabric or the beauty of a girl’s lips. And who doesn’t know the common expression “raspberry girl”? Bright, catchy, healthy, desirable, vigorous beauty is emphasized by comparison with this berry.

RED CURRANT
This is a very cheerful berry. In clear weather, its clusters are like precious stones, and in the translucent pulp, so that all the seeds and veins are visible, the sun plays, as if hiding its warmth in each of the berries. Picking red currants is a real pleasure. There is no need to squat or bend your back. You can stand up to your full height and quickly fill a container hanging at your belt with berries that easily come off from the bunch you pass through your fingers. And all around, the sun penetrates through the spreading foliage of the linden trees growing in the clearing, the air is full of the smells of herbs and flowers, the admirers of currants - white-browed thrushes - are chattering, flashing their red underwings with each flap. The girl who personifies red currants is fiery blonde, with a kind wide smile.


CLOUDBERRY
Cloudberry is an amazing berry. It has an amazing taste, its yellowish-orange color dispels any sad thoughts, and the ripe berry itself is so tender that it begins to collapse in the collection container under its own weight, which is why, for example, the second half of the bucket of this northern berry is collected much slower than the first one. I see Cloudberry as a very cheerful and mischievous girl. The image itself was based on my beloved wife Olga, so I somewhat modernized the cut of the clothes. Evening falls over the moss swamp, turning the clouds the color of cloudberries. The boxes are filled, and all that remains for her and her friend is to lick the red juice from their fingers, throw the burden over their shoulders and get out onto the sandy mane covered with pine trees. The badger dug a hole in the roots of one of the pine trees. A frightened black grouse flies deep into the swamp. Every high bog is an overgrown ancient lake, and where there is a thin layer of peat or where there is a water outlet, a trap lurks for a carelessly treading guest. In addition to swampy places and hollows, you should also beware of snakes, because vipers love to bask on hummocks, often covered by wild rosemary or rosemary bushes. And it is unknown what ancient secrets the thickness of the swamp itself hides.


STRAWBERRY
Perhaps the most memorable acquaintance with wild berries in childhood begins with strawberries. Everyone remembers the hot air, filled with the chirping of grasshoppers and the buzz of many flying insects, a sunlit clearing and the lights of this most delicious of berries peeking out from the grass, remembers how he strung strawberry “beads” on a blade of grass and happily ate them, or picked up a handful of berries, and then he put them in his mouth en masse. And the strawberry itself seems to me like a maiden lying down and basking in the sun. A young shepherd is secretly watching her. Arthropods are moving in the grass, grasshoppers are jumping from blade to blade of grass, and a young, bluish-black, agile falcon is hunting for them. On the high bank, dotted with burrows of shorebirds, the walls of the settlement rise, and in the sky, rays piercing the clouds illuminated the sign of the Sun, which gives light and warmth to all living things.


BLACKBERRY
Prickly, entwining other trees, clinging to clothes, scratching, forcing one to bypass it, a bush with burgundy, dark blue or almost black berries - this is the blackberry. For the first time I saw blackberries along the banks of the channels in the floodplain of the upper Ob. Accordingly, the image was formed quickly - a strong, vigorous, dark-haired girl, probably lively in songs, conversations and sharp with words. She had just swam in a small river overgrown with alder trees. The leisurely water weakly sways the stems of buttercups, arrowheads and floating leaves of pondweed, and over its surface along the shore, the carrier waders, integral to any body of water, sweep, whistling.


STONE BERRY
Probably everyone knows this berry, and many are familiar with the light, gelatinous pulp of red, irregularly molded berries with a seed inside, which, in fact, gave the plant its name. Children will never miss an opportunity to put a stone fruit, or “drupe” as they like to call it, into their mouths. They also collect it along the way, in the absence of more noble berries. The medicinal properties of the green part of the plant itself are also known - for healing wounds, for hair care and other purposes. For me, the name “bone man” imposed the image of a slender, thin girl, a “sterlet,” as they say in some areas. For the same reason, I provided her with bone amulets. The girl was tired, thinking about something of her own, sitting down on a trunk broken by a long-ago windfall. A wild aurochs bull once died under this trunk, having accidentally wandered from the river floodplain into a coniferous forest that was not quite typical for it. His horned skull had long been bleached by the sun, and more than one generation of grass had broken through the cracks and eye sockets. However, life goes on. A quiet chatter was raised by alarmed red-tailed jocks, and a marten poked its curious muzzle out of a rotten hollow log, fixing its beady eyes on the girl. But she indulged in her dreams and hopes.


PRINCE
Which berry is first brought to the nose before being put into the mouth? For the prince - a modest-looking berry, unfamiliar to the average and southern resident. This northern woman has a surprisingly pleasant smell and an even more wonderful taste. To know it, the princess should be given all honors: first bow down, because, despite its other name - northern raspberry, the princess grows as a separate low plant, often at a distance from its other fellow tribesmen, then pick the plant itself, because it is difficult to separate the burgundy-colored one with your fingers. red beads of berries from the receptacle, you can only bite them. This explains its complex and almost impossible preparation. However, in places where it grows abundantly, knyazhenika was previously collected to make a liqueur that tastes amazing. Both the name and the characteristics of this berry directly gave birth in my imagination to the image of something princely and honorable. The princess with a small retinue and nanny is leaving, or maybe heading to another city. The weather is clear, clouds slowly pile up over the lake, and in the air, grass, forest - everywhere the eternal game of life and death continues. The red-backed vole was also flattered by the prince, but a kite hovering over the clearing might spot her for dinner. Here is one of our most brightly colored nightingales, a blue-breasted male bluethroat, carelessly busy cleaning his wing, and a small hobby falcon is already making a lunge at him. It is unknown what awaits these people along the way, what the impenetrable forest hides. Therefore, the princess is given a sign that it is time to move on.


KALINA
Many poems and songs have been written about this wonderful berry; its fiery image has always excited the eyes and imagination of people. Even having shed its large palmate leaves, a tall viburnum bush glows for a long time with scarlet beads of fruit against the background of a gray pre-winter or already snow-covered forest, until they are pecked by restless flocks of thrushes or single hazel grouse. Here, in the picture, autumn is in full swing. The oak grove sheds its lush crown, and the foliage of the viburnum acquires a great variety of shades of yellow, green, red and ocher. At this time, the mating season of the mighty bison continues; the bulls rage at each other, tear off their horns and break young trees. Filled with bitterish juice, but prettier with each frost, large grains of berries bend the branches with scarlet robes, as if exalting the glory of fiery undying beauty before the next extinction of Nature. Even a flat viburnum seed with its outline resembles a heart in which love is born. It is not for nothing that among the people, viburnum has always been a symbol of girlish beauty. That is why the image of a stately, proud and noble Slav woman in bright, rich clothes, on a faithful, playful companion, carrying her rider through the autumn forest, appeared.


HONEYSUCKLE
Of our berries, it ripens earlier than all of us. And although it gives a bitter taste, children willingly eat it, attracted by its bluish fruit-lights, and when the harvest of other berries is weak, it is also used for home preparation. The drink made from it is especially good, perfectly quenching thirst. And the honeysuckle bush itself looks ingenuously welcoming - without thorns, with rounded smooth leaves and branches, densely strewn with berries, which have received a not very printed name among the people for their shape. Honeysuckle prefers mostly shaded areas along the edges of forest edges. Here, in the thick grass and bushes, you can unexpectedly stumble upon a sluka - a large forest sandpiper, long ago, at the suggestion of the nobles, called in Rus' German word"woodcock". Sluka can have a second brood just during the period of honeysuckle ripening. Flightless puffy sandpipers move independently, hiding or running away from possible enemies, but some hunters claim that in case of obvious danger, the female puffbird can carry her child away from harm through the air, holding the chick between her paws. This moment is captured in the picture. The girl is a little frightened by her mother's noisy take-off, but she will quickly pull herself together, and her natural primary fear will quickly be replaced by surprise and curiosity. I wanted to give the image itself restrained, calm features and smooth movements.


CRANBERRY
This berry is so familiar to everyone that just the mental imagination of it makes one’s mouth set sour, not to mention the very taste of cranberries, which softens and becomes sweeter only when the berry lies under the snow until spring. For many peoples, cranberry was one of the healing agents that helped them survive the winter and all the diseases associated with it. On some Slavic languages it is called crane berry, crane berry, and its names are translated from Germanic languages ​​in the same way. Apparently, this is connected with the very place where cranberries grow - swamps, favored by cranes, or with its flowers, reminiscent of bird heads with long beaks. In the picture it is already time for the first frost, and the cranes have flown away. But black grouse and wood grouse come to the swamps to feast on berries, sometimes leaving their feathers on the hummocks. The moose race continues, their groans resounding through the forests and outskirts of the swamps, challenging a worthy opponent to a duel and looking for females. In the heat of rivalry and love excitement, eagles lose caution and even become dangerous to humans. But the thoughts of the girl who went to pick the berries are occupied with something else. She is filled with ignorance and anxiety caused by possible heartache. Only for a short moment are they distracted by the sourness of the bitten berry, which cramps the cheekbones. Or maybe, on the contrary, it only intensifies the surging gloomy feelings. Meanwhile, cranberry is a berry filled with healing powers. So the girl’s cheeks are covered with a healthy blush, and she will be able to experience a lot more in life.


BEARBERRY
Many who have had to pick lingonberries have made mistakes when the berries that fell into their mouth suddenly turned out to be tasteless, mealy, and even with seeds. Bearberry can indeed be confused with lingonberries at first. Its berries never had much value, although they probably helped out in times of famine. The main attention was paid to its leaves, which have medicinal value. This is how the image of a young green-eyed herbalist, busy collecting them, arose. Here a gray-haired woodpecker examines trees and anthills, heading with its diving flight to the next place. And since another name for bearberry is bearberry, a bear with babies, who, as you know, love to frolic in the water, turned out to be appropriate down by the stream.


BLUEBERRY
It is indisputable that with the introduction of a foreign faith, the native faith of the Slavs did not disappear at once, but was preserved, thanks to its spiritual strength and applied natural knowledge, many centuries later. So our ancestors, discovering and settling new lands, transferred the fires of this faith to new spaces. IN in this case the action takes place in Eastern Siberia, where larch-white moss is common with dwarf cedar in the undergrowth and extensive thickets of blueberries. Its elongated blue-gray berries were always a welcome addition to the table, and a handful of them brightened up the rest of a traveler sitting near a blueberry tree. Due to age and other changes, blueberry leaves, in addition to the usual green, can have many shades of red, yellow and brown, which creates a fancy bright carpet, especially in the autumn forest. Wood grouse love to eat blueberries, one of which paid for his carelessness by being spotted and barked at by the girl’s faithful taiga companion, the husky. While her devoted assistant, sticking out his tongue, cheerfully examined the larch tree, the girl sat down to rest. Of course, she is blue-eyed and dreamy - I simply cannot see a blueberry in any other way - but at the right time her eye is sharp and her hand is firm. A crossbow is a weapon that can be wielded with girl power.


COWBERRY
Lingonberries are good both for their appearance and for their sweet, slightly spicy taste, as well as for the sensations experienced when picking them - strong, tight clusters, mosses strewn with bright beads, lichens at the foot of trees or old stumps, shiny and smooth leathery leaves that also good for forest tea. To make it easier for ourselves to collect this useful, but small berry, our ancestors long ago invented special wooden scoop-rakes with a jagged edge, which in our time have been replaced by metal “improved” structures. Contrary to the popular belief that this method harms the lingonberry bushes themselves, tears out leaves and twigs, a diligent and experienced picker, without exerting any force, easily moving and shaking the rake, helping with his free palm covering the scoop on top, separated the berries from the stems. Filled with natural faith, our ancestor accepted the gifts of Mother Nature with respect, observing the rules, not written by anyone, but refined over centuries, which, unfortunately and shame, are forgotten by today’s descendants. The image of lingonberry is a rosy-cheeked and cheerful girl. Her perky mood is also supported by a pair of agile, curious chipmunks, preoccupied with stuffing their cheeks. And the edges of the forest, old burnt areas and clearings are examined by the bear for the presence of anthills and chipmunk pantries. And of course, having come across a lingonberry curtain, the brown giant will not leave this tasty berry without attention.


BLUEBERRY
Raven-colored hair, sable eyebrows and a playful, languid gaze of sharp blue eyes - this is how blueberries appear, long known for their beneficial effects on vision. I depicted the girl in a mosquito net, since it is known that annoying bloodsuckers like to lurk in blueberry bushes. But now it’s hot, and the breeze is blowing through the pine forest, driving away the annoying mosquitoes, and you can throw the net away from your face. A hazel grouse perched on a pine branch - a big fan of blueberries, equally willing to fill its crop with the berries themselves, as well as with its leaves and green shoots. And the girl’s fingers and soles will be decorated with crimson-violet spots of crushed blueberry for a long time.

NIKOLAI FOMIN - A little about the artist
"The range of professional interests of Nikolai Fomin from the city of Kirov is unusually wide. Game biologist, landscape designer, wood carver, taxidermist, sculptor, animal painter and just a person passionate about his work. Ural, Far East, Western Siberia - these are the places that left an imprint on his creative biography. Participant of many exhibitions, including charity ones, illustrator. Nikolai's bright and original works are known far beyond Russia. He learned to draw himself, because he was and remains a diligent student at the school of wise nature."