Summertime. ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Absentee Staff

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Summer Solstice

I love the solstices and equinoxes -- those quarter year markers of the passage of the sun along our horizon. It's reached the northern end of the journey and is rising out of our sight, behind those trees but soon will be inching back to center stage.

So summer begins -- and the weather has been idyllic -- warm enough to break a sweat if you're pulling weeds or hoeing, or picking raspberries in the sun. But step into the shade and pull  off that sweaty bandana and straw hat and enjoy a cooling breeze.

Picking the wild black raspberries is a fiddly business -- the ripe ones come off easily but they're tiny and it takes a while to fill a bowl. I haven't made a cobbler yet -- I really like them best uncooked.

And there were two ripe figs . . .

Add some freshly whipped, barely sweetened cream and you have a solstice celebration in a bowl!

 

Day Lilies to Moonrise ... and Kittehs

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Real Sport?

The clematis vine on our porch is a mass of purple blossoms . . .

Except for this single lovely aberration -- a white flower with pale lavender streaks.

 Botanists call this sort of thing a 'sport'  --  and sometimes new varieties are propagated from sports. And then, these new varieties may begin to revert to the original. So I'm wondering, was my purple clematis (Jackmani, I think) derived from a lighter shade of pale and is it trying to revert? Or is this pretty thing a real sport?