flowers

They waited for me, my dear, dear lilies. Most of them will have their field days this week and even into next week. This then is the moment for flowers. Glorious and beautiful, rich with the colors of summer. Expect Ocean to devote most of its time and space to them. It's just the way it is. (Besides, the grandkids -- all mostly healthy at this point -- are ensconced in family trips and programs, so that I keep them on my radar screen and I track their movements, but from afar.

Oh, hemerocallis lilies, you are magnificent (and especially when growing next to the phloxes, monardas, lilium, and clematis, because communities of flowers are like communities of people -- enriched by the presence of those not entirely like the other)!

I step out early and immediately I start in on the garden clean up. I'm not in peak season yet, but with my absence, the spent flowers have hung limply on the stalks and I quickly snip them off because it really, really looks better that way. Total amount snipped? 691. 

It's a stunning day, with plenty of sunshine and the morning is pretty as can be!

And here's a strange but pleasantly so surprise -- in the morning, the swallows are back. Did they forget something? Did they feel the air to be too warm and so they came north again? Are these distant relatives of the ones who were here before? A mystery! 

Breakfast, yes of course. On the porch, with the delicious fruits of the season -- peaches and blueberries.

Some more work, and tidying, of Ed too! (Meaning I trim his gorgeous gray hair and shave off his beard.) And then I ask him if he wants to tag along to Eugster's Farm with me. They're just under ten miles from our farmette and they have the first crop of corn for sale. Having tasted this year's corn in Chicago, I'm hungry for more and our guys just down the road aren't ready to harvest yet. 

It's not hard to convince me to hop on his motorbike with him. I mean, on a warm day, on rural roads -- it's just a heavenly ride. With views!

At Eugster's we are tempted!

Yes, by the corn. But also by their sunflower bunches. And watermelon. This is when you begin to regret taking a motorbike. Can we fit it? We have to! However, on the trip home we take a tiny detour to check out the Ortega family's small greenhouse. They sell flowers and we're curious what they're growing. And of course, I cannot resist picking up just a couple of pots, including one of a very very tall and unwieldy hollyhock. My seeds did not take this year, possibly because the cheepers were scratching in the place I put them.  This one would be just perfect for the Big Bed. 

Now how on earth am I going to manage this on the motorbike?

I do, but Ed is forced to go very slowly and by the end of the short ride, my arms are stiff!

So I plant and I transplant and I move some plants and the day passes very quickly!

(Cookie break: with cookies from Chicago's bakery -- a very sweet memory for me...)

Ed tells me -- it's a beautiful place we live in, isn't it...

Indeed it is.