The summer solstice has passed by and I was too busy to pay attention. I usually keep a private vigil at sundown on the solstice, a ceremony of sadness that the longest day has come and the year is sliding slowly back toward winter. But we were in a car somewhere near Warren, Pennsylvania, traveling home from our family reunion when the sun went down that day. I don’t remember the sunset at all. We were pretty weary by then.
I love summer, but it has always been my nature to mourn its passing long before it has passed. I know it will be too short. It always is. And that makes me sad even while I’m reveling in it. June is gone in another day and with it goes the softness of late spring and early summer. July is a hotter, harder month than June. Instead of wild phlox and fireflies, we will have daisies and crickets, nice enough, but not the same.
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| The garden on the last Sunday of June. |
We came home from the reunion a week ago Saturday and after a day of rest, launched into big projects. Rachel is here for a few weeks and she promised Josiah she would help him paint his bedroom. So Josiah has moved most of his furniture out of his room (into my work room, unfortunately) and there was much scraping of old wallpaper and repairing of even older plaster going on all week. This week it will be priming and painting. It’s a small room, but it’s still a big project.
Rachel has also undertaken the task of redoing all of our family photo albums. The old albums were falling apart. She assembled all of the old albums and began sorting photos and putting in them in new albums. While doing that she found that several years of photo were missing. We spent several days tearing apart every cupboard upstairs looking for the missing years and that resulted in yet another project. We found bags and boxes in those cupboards full of things we haven’t looked at in years and years. Bags filled with old stuffed animals and dolls – most of them in bad shape. Boxes of knick-knacks and old school art and other things. Blankets. Old clothes. Rachel was starting to think that her mother might have a hoarding problem. But Stacey was keeping those things thinking that one day she’d give them to the appropriate child. Most of the bags and boxes had been infiltrated by squirrels and chipmunks and were full of sunflower seeds. We had an intervention and began sorting through it all, throwing most of it away.
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| The meadow on the last Sunday of June. |
While I was gone five days at the family reunion, the weeds went crazy. I’m sure they grew faster than normal during those five days. Whole parts of the garden were swallowed up by weeds. I worked at it as best I could, but I still haven’t caught up with my weeding schedule. We had rain and thunderstorms during the week – a total of six inches of rain fell over two days – and that made things worse by watering the weeds and keeping me indoors. I will prevail, eventually.
Our new chicks arrived in the mail on Monday. We went down to the post office and picked them up. It’s always exciting to get new chicks. I only got 15 this time – 8 light brahmas and 7 auracanas. We wanted to have chicks while Hazel is here. We put them in an empty rabbit cage down in the barn under a heat lamp for now. Josiah, the Keeper of the Flock, takes good care of them.
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| Chicks in the mail! |
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| Chicks in their new home - for now. |
Having Rachel and Hazel here is a lot of fun. We found out right away that our house is not toddler friendly. It’s not that it was full of dangerous hazards, but there were lots of things in Hazel’s reach that we didn’t want her to get into and she has a knack for finding every one. A lot of things have been moved to higher shelves. We’ve had to strap the refrigerator and freezer doors shut. Some things, like the low kitchen cupboards, we can’t do anything about except put back the things she takes out. It’s fun. She loves to go over to Shillig's and swing on their swing set. She loves to go down to the barn with her Uncle Josiah. She is a funny girl and we love having her here. She calls me Bapa now and I love it.
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| Hazel on Aunt Julie's swing set. |
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| Hazel going down to help collect eggs. |
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| Hazel swinging with her grandma. |
This last Sunday of June has been a lovely day. The air is warm and I can smell the mock orange bush in the front yard. The peonies are holding on and should last until the 4th. The roses and poppies are at their peak and the larkspur just starting to bloom. My Sunday School lesson today was on the book of Psalms, one of the books I love most in the Old Testament. Now we are home from church. Dinner is in the making. Rachel is making what she promises will be the best sugar cookies we’ve ever eaten for our Sabbath treat. The calm and quiet of a Sabbath afternoon and the beauty of a late June day are a perfect combination.
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| Peonies. |
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| Old roses. |
