yesterday

(meaning I should have posted this yesterday but then the camera batteries died)

Does it feel like summer is flying by fast to you?

I am taking a break from the hot sun on this long weekend (Happy Birthday Canada!) and sitting down in uninterrupted silence at the computer. It's been a while since I have been able to do so. I dropped the graduate off this morning for her senior trip. She has been hard at it studying and been nudging me off the computer after a few moments of sitting down.

Unless I am to edit an essay, that is. Then I got a little longer :) Never I have I seen so many sticky notes!

It seems ages that I took this photo of the first little harvest from the garden and never got to post it. The garden is in full bloom now

So much so, that there is a collective groan when I bring in more lettuce. Just wait until the kale and chard gets picked tonight.

I'm also sitting here having a cold glass of elderflower cordial. 

It had to happen sooner or later.

After being obsessed with elderberries it was time I used the flowers.

Remember if you will that I always had a bit of a drive to find elderberries, ending up near a friend's house, wading through deep streams and mosquitos to get them. Last year there wasn't enough to make wine, which was the next logical step after jam and cold syrup, right?

This year there just may be wine because I have seen elder flowers everywhere. I noticed the large growth just around the corner from me late last year but even better this year: on my property at the edge of the woods! The husband spotted them first. You have to be in just the right spot in the yard to see them, around the corn field. I went to confirm. Yes, definitely elder flowers!

There are a million recipes on the net so I won't post one here. The sugar and citric acid seem to be in wildly different quantities. There are oranges and lemons or just lemons added (I used both) but all the recipes seem to work. 

I'm also harvesting an early bit of lavender to dry. This sleepy tea sounds like just the thing.

Apart from cleaning closets (we are planing to sell our house - it's a long process, don't get too excited)

Speaking of which, my most photographed dilapidated farm is for sale, (83 acres  for $ 899K,  if you are interested...) And I've never shown the summer view:

I walked over in the heat to take this, right before the camera battery died, trying to stay in the shady spots and eating a few wild raspberries along the way. They are early, in this heat.

 

I have been working a little on knitting in the evening.

After struggling to find a good fit of pattern to yarn, I think third time's the charm. More details on this later. Hopefully it will be finished soon as it not for cool weather but I am not wasting a moment of Outside Time in summer. The only problem is, I think someone took the only bottle of sunscreen with her. So a shady tree it is or maybe The Porch.

Gosh it's hot.

What is summer like where you are?

 

 

Comments

[Francesca]

It's hot here too, but I'm truly enjoying it (it cools down in the evening) even though I've been on sticky, overcrowded and stinky trains with daughter for the last 3 days. Reading your post, I realized that I didn't remind my boys to water the garden while I was away, and that was very foolish I fear.
As I wrote you on flickr, I'm waiting for elderberries this year, for a little non-culinary project!

[Vicki]

We are in for a scorcher of a week (or two), and it's very, very dry. Sometimes the summer seems to be flying, and at other times it seems like it's been summer already for a long time (spring came pretty early in these parts).

Oh, that lovely farm...

[flowtops]

Wow, that's a lot to process at once!

Your produce is abundant - more so than ours, though in our defence I have to say that this is the first year we've tried regular vegetables in the garden, and perhaps the soil is off, or the weather is off, or we are just too neglecent with watering and the like ;-)

Our summer has been a little bit of this, a little bit of that. There will be next to no vacationing. We can't afford it. But the neighbourhood is nice and quiet, and because work is slow, we spend most evenings doing what we like (which often involves just sitting on the living room floor watching the young rabbits run around like little balls of crazy.)

Selling? O my. I'm guessing that is a long-haul-story, as is our sale that is so not going to happen this decade.

I love your knitting project, and wouldn't mind a taste of that elderberry wine.

Take care!
Nicki