Summer's Early Arrival

 Summer has arrived - if not by the calendar, then certainly by the weather!  Daylight hangs on until almost 9 o'clock and the heat lasts well into the night.   

As she unpacks her bags, Summer shows us all of the wonderful and not-as-wonderful treats that she brings along with her.

The wonderful-ness of Summer is apparent in the garden.  

Sugar peas blossoms almost magically turn into peas... almost overnight!

I was surprised Saturday evening, as I was watering the garden, to find this little ripe tomato.  This is the earliest tomato we have ever had!

The bugs now outnumber the humans by a billion to one - and the lion's share of those are thanks to the cacophonous cicadas. 

 I know I shared an audio (video) recording of their song last week, but, this week they are even louder.  The funny thing is... the center of their activity is right above Maven Haven. 

One can hardly hear oneself think in this space at the present time!

Fly season has arrived.  The horses graze early in the morning while it is still cool...

and are happy to hang out in the stalls under the fans for the heat of the day.  Fans help to keep them cool and also to keep the flies off.  My herd hates to have fly repellant (not that I've ever found one that really works that well) sprayed on them, so this is a good compromise.

  Flies are a curse to grazing animals!  And though we catch literally thousands in our solar flycatchers... there are always plenty left to pester the animals.

Each day brings more and more blossoms.... making all of the planting that I did a few weeks ago pay off. 

All this color makes me so happy.

It goes without saying that perennials more than earn their keep and will supply most of the brilliant color that we'll enjoy until Autumn's frosts.

Now that the birds are all out free-ranging again, Old Tom has been following me around the farm as I work on chores. 

 Yesterday morning I did a little pruning of this arbor.  It is covered with grape vines and two kiwi-berry plants - a male and a female.

And it looks as though we will have kiwi berries this summer.  If you have never had a kiwi berry, it is a miniature kiwi that has smooth skin.  The taste and inside appearance is the same as that of it's larger counterpart.

We had a lovely, hot, sunny weekend here on the farm.  Saturday morning we headed out to the Arts Festival that I had been anticipating.  Sadly, there were no artisans there.  It ended up being more like a flea market than an Arts Festival.  It looks like we will have to wait yet another summer for good Arts Fests.  Sadly, one of the very best of theses Festivals in State College has been cancelled for this summer.  

It's good to remember, though, that we are so much better off this summer than we were last year.  Life is slowly returning to normal.  We have much for which to be thankful!

We did take a long bike ride through the countryside...

and stopped to say hello to some friends.

This week is a very exciting week....filled with family activities.  I will try to keep up with blogging, but some of my posts may be brief.  It's our Summer Staycation week.