June

The beautiful month of June is ending too soon.  Never has this month smelled so sweet...from the fragrance of the roses and wild honeysuckle to the heady scent of the mock orange and the sweet clover in the hay meadow.

The gardens are doing well with plenty of warm weather, sunshine, and just enough rain.  We are harvesting lots of lettuce, green onions, and radishes for salads.  The green onions were started from a bunch I bought at the grocery store {as mentioned by The Prudent Homemaker} and are doing wonderful.  Again this year, the strawberries are doing poorly, and I've only picked a handful.  I was unable to order more of the mara des bois plants, my absolute favorite, as they were already sold out.

This is my first year growing hard-neck garlic, and I was completely unprepared for the scapes.  I've only just researched them and found out they are best cut early for eating; I thought this recipe sounds good, but am not sure whether my scapes will be tender enough at this point.

When it is tea time or just too hot and muggy, I take a break for a little knitting or the reading of a few pages.  I'm working on a tea cosy from Jane Brocket's book, The Gentle Art of Knitting: 40 Projects Inspired by Everyday Beauty and am reading Forty Acres and No Mule by Janice Holt Giles; both books are good so far, if you're looking for a summer read...

A final note: homespun living is now on Instagram!  Though I don't own a smart phone, my Nexus 7 is working out great for this purpose...I hope you'll stop by and take a peek.

~Deb