Summer is really here

The day lilies continue to brighten the edge of the lawn and the front pathway with multiple shades of red, orange, yellow, pink and purple, lots of hot colors to match the hot weather.

I walked into the shed today to get some string to tie up the tomatoes and startled a baby wren that flew into the window.  It fell into a plastic tub of nuts and bolts, wings spread out.  I picked the soft brown baby up, unsure if it was going to revive, held it firmly but gently in my hand and carried it outside behind the shed to search for a safe spot to set it down.  The small eyes, with cream colored eyebrows arching above were shut, the eyelids grayish white. 

I feared the bird was dying, held it closer to my face to see if I could sense breathing or movement, just then the bird twitched and fought its way out of my hands.  The little one landed on the trunk of a big pine tree and within one second a parent was there feeding it.  Amazing; mom or dad, not sure which, was watching the whole time as I brought the fledgling out and was totally ready to rush to the rescue as soon as it flew from my grasp.  Pretty cool.

There have been loads of baby birds all around the yard and farm lately. Last week I spied 4 baby killdeer toddling around in one of the pastures.  Grey and white striped fluff balls on long toothpick legs.  They bobbed their heads and cheeped while the parents performed their best "Hey look over here" distraction routines, feigning broken wings, flopping around on the ground, running down the driveway ahead of me to get me off the scent of their babies.  Pretty funny.

It is to be close to 100 this week- finally summer comes with a vengeance.  I'm trying to get the last of the spring crops harvested now; beets and turnips need out of the ground, all the onions are curing, all the greens either picked and eaten or fed to the chickens because they were being consumed by caterpillars.  Summer crops are starting to trickle in, cucumber and squash are sweet and full of water, blueberries are ripening at the rate of a pint a day.  Still haven't had our first ripe tomato so I broke down and bought some from my brother at the market last weekend, we had our first BLT of the season tonight for supper with potato salad, beet and cucumber salad and an ear of corn.

Now that was a meal that really felt like summer.