Summer Joys

I do love summer. It is light so long at night I can stop and pick berries after my Pilates class - somewhere around 9:00 PM. And the berries! Just cutting back the Himalayan berry vines when they reach into the lane, and cutting as much of the plant as I can reach, has given the native berries the chance they need to get established. Salmon and thimble berries, tiny ground blackberries that have flavor beyond their size, and the occasional blueberry bush are thriving. Yum.

This is the time of bright sunshine and the ground is littered with the long gems that are molted peacock feathers reflecting it. One of my favorite pastimes is collecting these beauties. Tiny fluff-ball bantam chicks dart back and forth around fierce little hens. The geese diligently protect the dog crate from anyone passing by, although they do allow Jesse to lay outside - further protection from the hungry ravens. A peahen spent half an hour strutting up and down the neighbor's roof, telling the world that she's a PEAHEN and she has a NEST and she has EGGS! I have not been able to find her nest, so the display isn't as foolish as it sounds.

We are having someone else's summer. It's been warm to hot most of the time since late May. Warm and sunny Junes are something the NW never sees. This summer is perhaps the reward for last winter, which was, actually, someone else's winter. It is, perhaps, a reasonable trade.