Joyful Summer Solstice to all the flora, fauna, people and the inbetween and around

It just hit me today that tomorrow is the longest day of light for this year.  How incredible.  

And it makes sense as if feels we have been living in the garden. 

Here are some photographs from the week.

Scattered bloom of Calendula

Look what I found in the garden pathway:  a Hungarian Blue Bread Poppy

Linden flowers

In the shady nook a the base of the River Garden, 
Patrick is making soil blocks for our fall succession of Cauliflowers

We bagged up over a hundred tea bags for an event this weekend, here are some
and some balms as well for the occasion.

I mentioned previously that I had stored some peonies in the cooler to see if we could have an extra month of peonies.  I harvested at two points in their life.  First when they were tightly budded and then when the bud was opening and was soft to the squeeze.  I set them in water this week and here is what happened:

The top image is of the more tightly budded peonies which are s-l-ow-ly opening.  This is after a week.  The more mature peonies have revealed their inner self in a matter of two days.  Success! and the scent is magnificent.

The Lower River Garden Summer, Day One.

Annie Leibovitz showed her images on the Hudson Valley along the Cavern wall yesterday
and strawberries! so! many strawberries we are lucky to harvest daily.

I went with Zach to pick up a sickle mower.  He has been very enthusiastic about using more of our pastures for hay production, using minimal methods.  It was a very fascinating experience to witness for reasons I will not go into.  But it gave me the time to document the entire exchange as I did not have much else to do.  Here is a photograph of Zach with the implement manual in hand deciding what to do.   We did end up bringing the mower back to the farm and right now I can hear him cutting away.

The Silo lit up.