Summer, So Far

A beautiful Solstice ritual with local druids started off my summer in what could not have been a better way.  OK, perhaps less mosquito bites would have improved it slightly.  Dratted little buggers!  The ritual was a simple yet deeply meaningful one and was followed up in true druid fashion with great food, drink and entertainment.  There were stories, poems, song and even a silly joke or two.  A great time had by both Mark and me among great company.  The main tree we were under was quite thoroughly decorated!

The next summer highlight would have to be the continued growth of our garden and some of the bounty we've been enjoying from it.

And these are just the things I thought to take pictures of.  We've been eating  lots and lots of greens, new potatoes, scallions, carrots, beets, squash and peas.  I just picked our first tomato last night, a yellow Taxi Variety that we have in a planter near our front porch.  We're looking forward to eating it tonight!  Both the p-patch and the home planters and raised bed are doing well - quite productive.  And it's about time to start planting greens and beets and such for the later part of the season!  And get the basil transplanted - finally.

We've also been enjoying some of the local bounty that we aren't growing ourselves.  We went and did u-pick strawberries and got 20 jars are strawberry jam made up along with a delicious strawberry rhubarb crisp that is long gone.  We also got raspberries and made up 16 jars of raspberry jam.  The latest was a 13 pound box of apricots that got canned up, made into apricot pie and a handful thrown in the freezer for later apricot delights.  Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of these due to the camera dieing on us.  But trust me, all the colorful jars look lovely!

We've had a good many enjoyable evening strolls along Alki, despite the crowds, and several picnics in local parks with one wonderful summer swim in Lake Washington down at Seward Park.  While we were swimming both a Bald Eagle and an Osprey flew over us, not to far above the water.  They were having a bit of a territorial spat.  The Osprey decided to not argue with the Eagle.  Smart Osprey!

We also had a great paddle at the arboretum on Lake Washington with plenty of birding by yours truly.  The  ducklings were probably the biggest treasure of the paddle, though!

Another highlight was joining my mother-in-law and my sister-in-law for the Vashon Garden Tour.  There was a lot of oohing and ahhing and drooling and coveting and dreaming.  I took over 150 pictures that day and a healthy selection of them deserve their own post, but here you can see that we three girls just couldn't help but smile after a day of garden delights!

Yes, summer has been good to us so far.  The sad thing, though, is that I may not be able to record the rest of the summer quite as well as I would like, due to our camera dieing on us.  Replacing it may not be in the cards all to soon.  I'll just have to use words in the mean time and do my best.

Happy Summer!