Took a drive through the countryside a while ago. Some cows were still in pasture, but many of them have gone to summer ranges up in the hills. The hay fields are being cut and baled, and the new crop is growing already in some of the fields. There is the smell of freshly mowed hay drifting through the air as I drive past.
On the side of the road are the fluffy white elderberry blossoms and pale mauve milkweed blooms along with a pale ochre coloured bloom that I don't recognize but couldn't stop to investigate. Delicate baby's breath was in bloom, looking like spreads of grey mist along the road side. At the orchards fruit was beginning to show colour, and in the vegetable farms, the rows of green are much more noticeably thick and green now, promising plenty of harvest soon. My neighbours have been picking chard and dropped by with bundle that I cook up for supper or throw in my salad, and other vegetables are ready too. So nice to have freshly picked produce! Delicious. Something bought at a store that has been picked early (unripened) and shipped for miles just does not compare in taste.
I stopped at the fruit stand to pick up a small basket of cherries brought in from the orchards. These are from a later crop and have probably been in the cool room for a while, but delicious still! My first basket of cherries in the year always reminds me of childhood when I would scamper up the precariously placed picking ladders with my bucket and always fill my belly to overflowing long before the bucket was full. It was such a peaceful world hidden in the trees, sharing the fruit with the birds hiding in the branches - leaves dappled by sunlight. The air was cooler and the cherries sweet and juicy and I didn't want to come down.
These drives through familiar country always remind me of more carefree days, and I try to absorb the feelings and appreciate those times- when all I had to do was watch, listen, learn and remember.
Elderberry Blossoms
Elderberry juice is healthy for you! I find it rather 'tongue drying' by itself, but mixed with other juices it's excellent. The flowers are creamy coloured and grow in a large, flat group.
Milkweed
Swallowtail butterflies like the milkweed plant. They rely on this for food during their migration.
The flowers are interesting, but I love the seed pods the best!
It's always peaceful and relaxing for me to wander outdoors. Even if I am in the car driving I see the sights, smell the smells, and it relaxes me. It triggers many good memories. It also reminds me that there is a rhythm to the natural world - cycles and seasons - and it helps me keep the busy life in perspective.
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