Saturday, June 30, 2012

Scenes of Summer, Part 3: Refuge in the Springhouse


In addition to my garden here at home, I am tending a small part of the garden at Exchange Place where I have planted heirloom veggies to use for open-hearth cooking.   Thomas enjoys going with me, though he is smart enough to stay in the cool environs of the springhouse where he looks for rocks and bugs and sends the barn swallow couple, who have built their nest in the rafters, into fits.






Scenes of Summer, Part 2: Eat Your Peas...and Blackberries!


Right now, at the end of June, we haven't had rain in over six weeks, and the temperatures are reaching the 100's.  We're all--animals and plants--digging deep for water and higher spirits.  Early spring rains, though, gave us a good crop of peas and blackberries, which we have been enjoying this month.  Most of the peas will be saved to go into our end-of-the-summer vegetable soup, and the blackberries will be eaten out of hand, baked into fresh cobblers, and saved for our special blackberry jam cake at Christmas.  And though it may be hard to do when the fruit is so tasty and you are 2 years old, we always share our harvest with our good friends, like Erin, Roberto, and Luca, who recently visited us from Atlanta.











Scenes of Summer, Part 1: The Swing


When Lance and I first bought the farm, one of my most vivid visions of its future included a swing suspended from one of the towering walnut trees below the house. Ten years and a sweet little boy later, we finally brought the vision to life.







The Swing
by Robert Louis Stevenson

How do you like to go up in a swing,
      Up in the air so blue?
Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing
     Ever a child can do!

Up in the air and over the wall,
     Till I can see so wide,
Rivers and trees and cattle and all
     Over the countryside--

Till I look down on the garden green,
     Down on the roof so brown--
Up in the air I go flying again,
     Up in the air and down!