Before the Rain

We're expecting rain for a few days, and I wanted to get out early and gather the lavender for a distillation a little later in the day.  It's so quiet and peaceful (although very wet) first thing in the morning alone with the garden.  Last night Molly and I went out to pick blueberries.  She reached out for the yucca blossoms and said, "Feel this Momma, I just love the texture of these flowers."  All of you herbies know that my heart skipped a beat, knowing that she is looking at them the same way I do, experiencing the plants with all of her senses.
But this morning I was alone with just the foggy mist, a lot of groggy bees, and the lightning bugs crawling in to take shelter in the elderblossoms after a wild night of crazy bug love.
I can't lie.  The chicory and the bladderwort both have some superb root systems that defy my abilities.  They are both rampant field weeds and lovely as they are, they would completely take over the whole property if I let them.  Still, they do have a corner where I leave them alone (probably not the best idea).

The Fiji persimmon tree is full of small persimmons, but sheds them daily.  In the end, we might wind up with a few ripe fruits.  It's a young tree, so it can't really support all of that fruit just yet.  One day though...

Last night I saw the first blooms of the passionflower.  The vines have a whole corner of the split rail fence, and use this old potato fork to climb upon.  It is covered with varying sizes of buds, and is already a thing of beauty.  One of the many plants that has been enjoying our rainforest type weather of high humidity, high temps, and daily late day rain for the last week or so.

Both the stunning echinacea and the lofty fennel behind it volunteered in this space on either side of the fence.  I'm starting to notice just how big a part the birds play in the garden.

Finally, I stopped to look at the lemon thyme patch, and in doing so suddenly realized that most of the mowed path for several feet in all directions is also thyme!  The yard in that area is covered in thyme!  How cool is that?

Inside to do a litte work.  Ship some orders, send out renewal notices, and then fire up the still and se what kind of delightful lavender hydrosol we can produce.  Just another day...