Friday

I guess I do tend to overthink the garden a bit. For example, I counted snipped lily blooms today again. I couldn't help myself. I needed to know!

And guess what: I came up with 603 spent flowers that went straight into the bucket. 603?! Wasn't that yesterday's exact total?






Of course, each plant produces a varying number of flowers, oftentimes being light on blooms one day and heavy the next.





But the garden will be quieting down in the next weeks. August is not July. In August, the summer greens start to hint at post-summer golds.


I am out in the garden very early today. It's my grocery shopping day and if I'm to clip the whole place, well, I better be out with the bucket not too long after sunrise. I am rewarded with a different light... a lovely early morning light.

(Three pink flowers, having little in common but for the color...)






I'm standing somewhere in the Grand Bed, looking toward the farmhouse:






(Working the front bed by the road...)






Done! Breakfast at last. I nearly hurry through it!






Even as everything about the day -- the beautiful weather, the perfect views, the bug free porch -- invite us to linger... (Looking out from our place at the table...)






Off I go now! No cranes this morning, but there are other compensations...





And at noon, I am at Snowdrop's school. The kids had played under the sprinkler. The day is sunny and bright after all. (Just open your eyes going down the stairs, little one.)





Will she want to swim anyway?

She does. Gaga I can wear my swim suit from school!






Yes, and you can splash and shout like the best of them here!






At the farmhouse, when she naps, Ed and I take out computers to the porch, just to sit in that afternoon light and take in all that gold the is our outdoor world right now...






(She wakes up... Where is everyone?...)





Farmette summers... Even if you don't want to hang out in the fields with the bugs, you still find yourself drawn to that world of flowers and butterflies, of beautiful landscapes... (And yes, in the evening, when Ed and I ride out to play tennis, we see that the cranes have returned...)






They fill their stomachs with the grains, I fill my soul with these images. For the winter.





We open the farmhouse windows for the cool night breezes... Time to listen to the sounds of a summer night. Time to exhale.