Monday, June 30, 2008

The Last Day of June

The butterfly bushes are now blooming. Essence of honey greets my nose as I walk past them to the barn. Such a lovely bush and such a lovely smell. I think the bees must be drunk with so many pollen and nectar options! The sunflowers in the lower vegetable garden are blooming, but the ones in the yard are not. They grow taller and taller. Just like Thomas! Maggie's zinnias are blooming. The cosmos are tentatively trying out theirnew petals, as are the echinacea. The rose bushes by the driveway are beginning to look as if all their effort to be beautiful is wearing them out. They may need to take a break, there are plenty of other flowers to take over the job of gilding our farm. I am amazed at the hydrangeas. Llilies and clematis welcome us to the backdoor.

Yesterday evening I went out to check on some of the animals and to enjoy the fresh air. We have a peach tree behind the milking parlor. It is loaded with peaches. Every day or two they blush and glow a little more. We try one. Still too hard. But yesterday I saw one lying on the ground. So red, so perfect, I had to pick it up to give a try. With the first bite, juicy peachness dribbled down my chin. The first ripe peach! What a gift.

Most of the peaches are not yet ripe, but they will be soon. Peach jam, peach pie, peach cobbler, peach icecream, frozen peaches served with blenheim's ginger ale(not for the faint-hearted). What impeccable timing. We are fully satisfied in the cherry department. We have one big black jewel raspberry plant. It is a lot of work to pick those berries. There aren't very many of them, but they taste good. It is hard not to compare them to the wineberries that grow in the woods. The domesticated black ones are just a shadow of the wineberries. Those we will fight brambles, bugs and branches to reach. They ripen in late July. About the point we have reached peach saturation.

I need to eat breakfast. All this talk of fruit has made me hungry. Yogurt with peaches? Raspberries? I must send the girls out to pick a fresh bouquet to brighten our table.

1 comment:

CountryDew said...

I love wineberries and have since I was a child. They are a most excellent berry. Not enough of them around my place, though.