Summer has come

After an extraordinary (and I mean that rhetorically as well as factually) damp and cool late winter, we skipped spring and now find ourselves in the summertime. It’s warm (and occasionally hot), rain makes ceremonial appearances and then retires, and corn is growing like bamboo. Writing of which, our bamboo after a lackadaisical start last year, has shot up. Which is good, because that bamboo has a serious role to play as the gardens transition from hardscape and land works to actual green things. Not, mind you, that we don’t have lots, and lots, and lots of green things. We are awash in a verdant vegetal wave of flora (what a fun five words to write!). But these green things are managed in the sense that one builds a stone wall, and then prays to all the world’s fertility gods that they stop at carnivorous plants, and don’t decide to experiment with saxavorious varieties. I think I made that word up, but based on latin saxum, stone.

Also, now, the markets are full of fruits and vegetables, all of which are a welcome sight after tuberpaloosa. Tomatoes are the highlight for me right now, but I did really enjoy the six-day artichoke season, and the four-minute strawberry season.

Some pictures: