Sure Feels Like Summer

 

I know the solstice hasn’t yet arrived but I’m convinced it’s summer. Today’s thermometer reads 92 degrees. The humidity feels a bit like standing above a boiling pot of soup. And I’m a toasted itch grump full of poison ivy. I’m not a fan of summer’s heat but have to admit, things are lovely around here.

 

Fragrant elderflowers are in bloom — some of them on bushes we might actually be able to reach, out there in brambles and underbrush, when it’s time to pick the berries.

Water lilies are again clogging up the pond, both white

and pink. Many mornings a great blue heron stands pondside looking for breakfast, but I’m not sure the pickings are great with all these lilies in the way. (I keep trying to give lilies away. If you want a few or 100, come on over.)

Trees seem to be heavy with fruit this year. Our pear tree is loaded and we’re already eating cherries.

We always assumed this was a crab apple tree but my daughter suggested it might be a heritage cider apple tree. Commonly used to make hard cider, many old varieties were lost during Prohibition and after, when hard cider fell out of favor.

A clutch of eggs hatched a few weeks ago. These nearly grown chicks are still a little wary of leaving the coop without mom.

We’ve had such massive rain this spring that our new hoop house wasn’t dry enough for planting until this week. Today is the day that grapevines are being planted!

After years of cattle and now two years without animals on our pasture, new fencing is going up. Already I can picture sheep here. And maybe a miniature donkey or two. Every new post put in gives me hope.

I hope too that my son’s truck will get fixed before it becomes part of the forest.

Best of all is this outdoor girl. She speaks the secret language of stones, sticks, and puddles. She’s teaching me to love everything summer has to offer.