Summer is like a big sigh.  It feels good.  Makes you want to breathe more.  I ended this past winter thinking to myself that I need to try to remember the smallest details, especially with Iz.  To enjoy the simplest pleasures and remember how they make me feel, and even how Iz feels.  I tried to make a list of things that I thought would be important, but quickly realized how futile that is, life just happens and enjoying it, and remembering to enjoy it makes me cherish our little family even more.

We spend quite a bit of time in our little garden (or le jardin as my mom would call it and I know call it too!).  I swore up and down last fall that I would keep a garden journal this year, and well, this is as good as it gets!

I planted these all in early May, our Micro Spicy Greens, Spinach, Arugula, Rainbow Chard, Mesclun and Peas.  Everyday we eat from this garden.  I’m about to plant more greens for the next round.  I should have done it about 2 weeks ago, as this little garden is just about done.  Note for the journal.

This bed was planted almost a month later, on June 14 and everything except the Purple Queen beans are starts from my lovely neighbor.  Eggplant, Brussels Sprouts, Cabbage, Pepper, Zucchini and the beans all the way in the back.  Hopefully by the end of this week, my tomato garden will be finished.  I plant heritage cherry tomatoes, and they have all sprouted from the cherries I didn’t pick, but fell to the ground last season.  I have 6 different varieties, we’ll see when they fruit what I have left!

Iz is becoming a pro at eating from the garden.  She tries it all, and has spread her picking habits to the lawn, where, thankfully, she asks if she can eat something before popping it into her mouth.  We’ve eaten the clover and sorrel, and she’s got quite the taste for all these greens.

Our peas have started to bloom.  Iz is thrilled, since we planted these from seed on May 7, everyday she asks if she can go to the garden and eat the peas.  Soon – we are almost there!

A surprise radish.  Surprise because I didn’t read the package carefully.  Micro Greens Spicy Mix from Botanical Interests.

Peonies leave me just speechless.

We have about 7 lilac bushes, and the smell on the warm day is enough to sweep you away.  The butterflies love it and we sat and watched hundreds of them for a few days flutter in the warm yummy air from bunch to bunch.

Now that we are moving, I find myself taking pictures of everything.  I love this place and just don’t want to forget what it looks like.

Rob was driving home the other day, and in the middle of the road was an elderly woman with bunches of hydrangeas in her hands.  She wasn’t going to let Rob pass, so he stopped. He stopped because she reminded him of his Grandma.  This is something she would do.  This kind, sweet old woman was cutting  her bushes back and didn’t want the flowers to go to waste.  He got a big bunch.  The two cars after him got big bunches too.