Happy Summer Solstice 2018

My sister and I celebrated Mid Summer's Eve in the garden last night

with a Pimm's Cocktail, deviled eggs and garlic farm bread cubes topped with tomatoes and a balsamic vinaigrette and of course the moon. It was beautiful with the passing clouds. I'm not much of a measurement person, but I'll give you the ingredients for the Pimm's Cocktail:

natural ginger ale ( I use one that has extra ginger)

cucumber juice (Use the pulp and seeds from a cucumber that has been split lengthwise and strain.)

Pimms

Put your combo in a tall canning jar, shake and place in the fridge for a few hours and pour over ice in a tall glass when you are ready to serve.

Getting the cucumber juice takes awhile, but it's worth it.

We started off a little earlier with my mother present and had mint chocolate chip gelato topped with lightly sugared strawberries. (Use powdered sugar if you have it. It dissolves more easily than granular.)

Now for the educational part of the post. I subscribe to earthsky.org. I highly recommend it. You'll get an email in your box daily filled with information about our earth and the sky. You don't have to be a scientist to find it interesting. Here's an excellent summary of the Summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere from earthsky.org:

"Longest day for Northern Hemisphere, but not the latest sunset. The latest sunset doesn’t come on the day of the summer solstice. Neither does the earliest sunrise. The exact dates vary with latitude, but the sequence is always the same: earliest sunrise before the summer solstice, longest day on the summer solstice, latest sunset after the summer solstice."

The water lily treated us with a new blossom this solstice morning.

The wild bergamot started to bloom this week.

Hibiscus by the pond on Mid Summer's Eve. It came with the house and adds a hint of the exotic to the far back of the yard.

The large amount of rain this Spring has been very kind to the butterfly bushes. The blossoms seem much larger than normal on the white ones, so we measured one. It's 14 inches long! Ian's holding the tape measure for the photo. He's holding it up a little higher than the blossom.

Here's a mystery "weed" for 2018. My mother thinks it going to be a pumpkin. Our compost pile is beside the shade garden. We have four of these vines growing.

I'll end this slightly rambling post with a view of the Green Man and Crystal. We moved him to the left this week so we can have a clear view of him through the rose arbor. I purchased him on a visit to Arundel in the UK. I found the crystal in the back yard years ago. It almost looks like glass in places it's so clear. When the sun shines on it small rainbows appear in the crystal.

Enjoy your longest day of the year!