June Days

It's 9:30 pm. There's still plenty of light in the sky, and the street lights have just come on. Birds have chirped their sleepy goodnights and the air is still. 

These days the garden grows almost visibly each day. Just now the strawberries are the stars of the potager. I've harvested at least 8 pounds already. It's a bumper crop in our area. We're enjoying them every day with our yogurt in the mornings. I made some strawberry preserves, froze several bags of them, concocted a fresh strawberry pie, and on Saturday we enjoyed a puffy oven pancake with mounds of fresh berries. 

For showiness, the poppies have taken over. Huge pom-pom like heads in grand profusion fill one corner of one of my vegetable beds. Two plants seeded themselves there and I let them be. There are others in the flower beds that haven't yet bloomed, so I'm looking forward to more of these beauties. 

I discovered that the poppies don't do well in cut arrangements. I put together a vase full yesterday and ended up taking it outdoors. I found the scent mild, and not unpleasant, but it seemed to stifle the air in the room. 

Last week's arrangement of roses and feverfew, along with lemon balm leaves, sprigs of lambs' ear, and some Portuguese laurel was a much better choice. I have a smaller version of this on the mantel now. 

Here's a collection of purple flowers from the garden today - clematis (General Sikorski), sage blossoms, heliotrope (I do love that vanilla/baby powder scent), foxglove, and lavender. The garden is a richness of blooms and each day I meander through it and discover something new.

I have 7 more instructional days of school, then a week of marking exams, writing report cards, and tidying up. I'm very ready for the end of the semester. At the same time, I don't want to wish away these June days, for they are so beautiful. How are you faring in this 6th month of the year?

In the 30 minutes it's taken to finish up this post, darkness has fallen. Silhouettes of trees and houses stand against a summer sky of not-quite-dark.  

Linking to Mosaic Monday, hosted by Maggie of Normandy Life.  

Now in the Garden: Mosaic Monday

It's always a bit of a thrill when the garden begins producing. One evening this week I thought I'd go out with a small bowl and see how many ripe strawberries there might be. I ended up returning to the kitchen for a bigger bowl and filling it to the brim. Sweet and juicy strawberries are a great way to kick off almost-summer.

Then I pulled up a bunch of radishes. I got mine in late this year; usually they are the first thing to harvest. 

To go along with dinner last night I paired the radishes with cucumber, fresh snipped chives, and a simple dressing with olive oil, white wine vinegar, salt and pepper. Crisp and delicious. Bring on summer food!

My potting bench needed a serious tidying up, so that was done this weekend. I cleaned up the paperwhites from Christmas (still in their glass containers), scrubbed pots, threw away old plastic pots, and swept off the bench. It looks much better now and is actually usable for potting, not just for throwing things onto. 

The stars of the garden just now are the roses and peonies. I'm torn between clipping them for the house and leaving them in the garden. Fortunately, there are enough to satisfy both places. 

I've been talking to the roses and peonies out in the garden, complimenting them on their showiness. I do it quietly as I wouldn't want the neighbours to think me entirely batty. 

A day or two ago, I heard my neighbour talking: "Good morning, Mrs. Robin," she said, "I can hear you singing your pretty song." 

Instantly, I felt better. Do you talk to your garden or the wildlife that happens by? 

Linking with Mosaic Monday, hosted by Maggie of Normandy Life. 

Strawberries Make Life Sweeter

It seems like there's a lot of frustration with Blogger and Google these days from the comments received on my last post. It seems that some internet places won't play nicely with others (aol and yahoo), and Google Plus is just plain confusing. Comments lost, comments disabled, comments hard to post, comments impossible. Thanks for all your input. It's nice to know I'm not alone in the blogging maze.

I'm so grateful for the free blogging platform that Google provides with Blogger, but I'm not interested in having my entire life connected to my Google plus profile, which seems to be their goal. An ad for Google plus says "connect with friends and family, explore your interests and see how all of Google gets better." Um. I don't think it's working. Exclusivity is not connection. But that's another discussion. Let's move on to something sweeter!

It's summer! Sort of. Cooler temperatures around here lately, but still very pleasant with a sweater. Strawberry season arrived a couple of weeks earlier than normal due to a warm May and early June. 

One little miss and I headed out to the strawberry patch yesterday. She's so good at understanding rules. When I gave her her hat to put on she said, "oh yes, summer rules." Another rule was not eating the berries until we'd paid for them. She followed that one without any problem. She's also very good at choosing which berries to pick and which to leave to "ripen just a little bit longer, Nana."

I filled my bigger bucket and she filled her smaller one, mostly by taking berries from Nana's bucket. Sweet times in the berry patch.
 

We ate lots of them freshly rinsed, juicy and sweet. After she went home, I made a Strawberry Tart for Grandpa who had meetings scheduled until 8 pm and was happy to sit down and have a big piece when he got home.

What's fresh at your place?