summer solstice

It's the longest day of the year. Despite its length, its getting darker as the rain clouds move in.

Babu and Muji watch the birds

Babu's attention span is longer

lemon thyme and chives at the yard's edge

a clematis blossom peeks out from behind some hollyhock leaves

the centre of the clematis flower

budding flower of a hollyhock

raspberry flowers

how a raspberry flower becomes a berry

our azalea planted last fall comes into bud

azalea buds

heuchera is a woodsy looking perennial  with dark purple leaves from whence it gets its name, blackcurrant, that become more silvery in summer

It is also known as Coral Bells, though this variety's flowers  are more white

that funky hard purple budding flower that I've been giving progress reports on throughout the spring, but still don't know the name, is fading to a dull gray/green white 

but still quite firm, a tough and enduring bulb plant

baby harelson apples

the stub of a baby peach

the cherry blossoms have burgeoned into their destined fruit

a water soaked carnation pink

a poppy breaking free

unfurling

Japanese maple raindropped

the lupins in the evening light

honeysuckle at the edge of the field, a nondescript mess of leaves but for its wonderfully scented flowers

a budding honeysuckle

lupinfield to the east

no lupins in the hayfield to the south

honeysuckle on the shelf 

note the weird way the bloom grows out of the leaf, and the weird way the leaves are joined like a violin.  A gloriously scented bloom that lost its fragrance within an hour of picking,

but continues to open its petals many hours later as I wait to see if its branch sends out a root.

a sweet start to summer in our garden and the field beyond

holding the gift lightly, it is only ours to borrow

Muji and the pheasant wake up call

The beating wind of the last 24 hours has settled down to a brisk breeze. The rain subsided in the early morning. Muji trilled and hummed with a mYow for punctuation to get me up. Oh, I so wanted a little more sleep. But then I heard, for the third time, the drumming of a pheasant's wings and it's scratchy cackle so close that I jumped out of bed.

There was a beautiful male in the garden

I was lucky to catch him just in time as he began to leave, still on the search for bugs.

Picking up the pace

Betwixt grapevine and forget-me-nots

a closer look reveals his mock horns or "ears"; isn't that so like a medieval dragon!

and off he goes into the maple and lilac hedge to search my neighbour's garden

The wind had nearly dried the grass already so I headed off in my pajamas to see the lupins, 

just beyond Forget-Me-Not Cabin.

They have come so far in a day

Beyond the trailing honeysuckle, the lupins fill this end of the hayfield

The honeysuckle buds: how odd; I'm sure they bloomed orange and white last year.

We'll see soon enough what transpires.

The windswept lupins

and a last look out back. I dreamed last night a bulldozer had ripped this up for a suburban tract.

It is for sale. We cross our fingers and toes that no one would use it for such a thing.

So I wandered over to the Pink Tulip and found her disrobed. Oh my.

only her pistil and stamens left.

Do you remember the strangely hard purple buds that grew tight to the ground?

 This is what they became. I still don't remember what they are called.

Here are some more blooming by the dead tree trunk in the morning light.

By the composter, the Clematis are in bud

A Harelson apple begins to grow

Hopefully they will survive the deer this year

The poppy, the garlic, and a small row of lettuce beyond.

a poppy bud

Just a little update; we have the pheasant to thank.

holding the light

temperate nature

It has been a most wonderful old-fashioned spring, the way I remember from my childhood, when spring was a definite season, separating the hoar of winter from the heat of summer.

Wally finally found time for his beloved garden, weeding in the midst of mowing the lawn.

He'd spent the morning trying to bring the back hedge down to a more manageable height,

but he couldn't span its breadth, it has grown so deep. You can see the errant branches that fan out from the middle.

Coming back in, I settled in my chair and found Babu in a playful mood 

with the catnip toy I recently found behind a dresser.

He tossed it about the room, teasing it

waiting for it to respond

provoking it again

and then suddenly he was behind me, laying on his back, reaching for where...

he'd tossed it behind the door to the vestibule

Here he's changed the game to trying to reach it under the door

and back again.

Later that afternoon I checked in on the garden. The large leafed hollyhocks are coming along,

as are the finer vined clematis.

I can see now, by this closer look, that the deer did, indeed, eat my pink tulip's leaves,

but fortunately it was a late bloomer and the deer were discouraged by Wally's adept placement of the pallette out back (see last post), so it could bloom undisturbed.

Looking out towards our parking area, and beyond the hedge to the road, the sun is setting.

Wally re-bandaged the Japanese Maple's branch when it came undone and it continues to do well.

The chives are blooming between the lemon thyme and the sage.

Looking east across the hayfield

At my feet some lupins about to bloom

A new patch dug in Wally's garden

Preparing quinoa tabbouleh for supper.in a bowl I made back in 1981

I've had to go vegetarian and amp up the Budwig muesli to an evening serving as well, to keep my one eye from clouding over. It is working.(Still no progress on the other.) The beginning of last week was so discouraging as my so-called "good" eye got worse, but I am encouraged now.

 Adding one more element to the program, i.e. cooking a separate meal from Wally's, keeps me on my toes as we continue to figure out what's going on with the cat's diet. We are still trying to keep up with the cilantro and vegetable juicing as well to quell Wally's possible heavy metal poisoning as he showed tremor's late last summer. Then there is the new focus on keeping his blood reading for pre-diabetes at bay. All these protocols are so healthy. I have had a few exciting side benefits that encourage me immensely and show that the extra effort pays off.

The biggest trick is to have a temperate nature of my own. The emotional ups and downs add an unnecessary layer to the extra work. I've known for years about the benefits of meditation, but rarely make a daily practice of it. The "freeze frame" that someone described this week is more what I do as the occasion requires. Still the intentional "sitting" with one's breath for 45 minutes, observing thoughts without judgement, releasing them back to the breath, is the most useful exercise I know.

I have 3 quotes I' like to share with you:

Aldous Huxley said, "Facts do not disappear just because they are ignored."

"I do not fix problems. I fix my thinking. Then problems fix themselves."

                                                                                                   Louise Hay

"We're all just walking each other home."

                                                  Ram Dass

My interpretation:

We cannot pretend that the stressors in our life are not real and important. But to identify them as thoughts changes their status from fact to opinion. That is how we change their relevance to our emotional well-being.

 Home is a state of mind.