June 21 through 25

"The rituals surrounding the summer solstice,
however, are somewhat ambivalent."
I have none.
It was after I became a gardener that I became aware of length of day.
I have begun to make up my own.

"Now it is summer at its most robust."
"Now the garden needs my intervention again because it is choking on its own abundance."

I looked about my gardens.
The bamboo is robust.
Both stands broke through the barriers we installed.
We will need a bamboo harvest soon.
Perhaps it could be solstice ritual.

I wonder if in the Chinese almanac they have a time of Ripening Bamboo.
I wonder when the Bamboo harvest is.
It best be soon here or we will have
"Bamboo sacrifices Forsythia"

the mockingbird loses its song

June 16 through 20

Liza Dalby's essay 27 brought an awareness to me.
A pair of Mockingbirds live in our backyard. They have two youngsters that are always wanting food. The parents are constantly feeding these two hungry mouths.
Mockingbird has lost his song.

Other birds also seem to be singing less. As we move closer to solstice I am wondering if the birds are molting. Perhaps nesting and feeding the young has exhausted them. Maybe as the summer heat comes on they are just wanting a cool bath.
The fireflies are out at dusk and the insects have begun to sing. Maybe that is enough singing.

In my gardens the tomatoes are blooming.

Grain Ripens

June 1 through 5

I have read this essay many times. I am fascinated at how the Chinese ritual year was divided. I am thinking about my personal rituals. I do have seasonal rituals. There is celebration at my house when we pick the first tomato.

I grow a small stand of wheat every year. I grow it with the idea that someday I will learn how to do wheat weaving. I grow an old variety, Turkey Red, a winter wheat that I sow in September. It will be ripe soon. I will harvest before the temperatures reach 90 degrees F. I will dry my wheat and store my wheat. If I do not weave the wheat this year I will once again lay it out in the winter for the sparrows.

This year I sowed oats. I have never seen them grow. I do not know anything about growing oats. So far they have not even sprouted.
The birds planted millet. I guess I will let it grow. At least it has sprouted.
I like the idea of growing grains.

I made a few notes in my garden journal. After reading about Liza Dalby's Himalayan Poppy blooming I want to try to grow them. I too would like a flower in my garden the color of the sky.

I have never grown blue flowers.