June Is Bursting Out All Over

Every month has its beauty but June really sets the bar, I think.  Every live thing is blooming, growing, expanding and enjoying the warm sun.

Our bee tree was silent this spring.  The resident honey bees apparently didn't survive the winter for whatever reason, but nature abhors a vacuum and a bee tree isn't vacant long.  A nice big swarm swept in from somewhere and set up housekeeping.  That's a lot of bees!  We're hoping they are docile occupants as previous swarms have been.

The early summer flowers are making a good show.

 If you look closely you'll see a big jumping spider hiding in the peony bloom.  I'm sure there's some kind of sinister metaphor here but I just think they're cute!

Another little visitor is a pretty garter snake that has taken up residence somewhere under the concrete patio and likes to sun himself in the tomato bed.

We had  few days of hot sun and a dry Canadian high pressure system which allowed us to get a good start on the hay.

Unloading the bales in the morning of this beautiful day with the prospect of baling more in the afternoon, watching the cloud shadows slide over the hills while the sheep grazed, hearing the birds talk and the flag snapping in the breeze.....  I feel so blessed to live in the place and time that I do.  I could wax poetic about living in the country and farming but the pictures are better, I'm sure.

The view of home, from north to south.  Sorry it's a little shaky - I'm trying a different video platform as I don't like that I can't disable 'suggested videos' on YouTube anymore - and I haven't gotten far enough into the editing functions to improve the quality.  Sigh.  Have to learn new things again.

And we did have lambs this spring!  I'll try to do a baby picture recap at some point but this is where we are now - going out to a small pasture with the moms and a few old aunties!  We mowed the long flat part of this pasture and will bale it.  What we didn't mow will feed them well until the grass grows back where it was cut.

This is not a trick of the camera - the gray ewe in front, Taffy, is really this big.  Oy.

Trying to get pictures of small moving lambs in tall grass proved to be an exercise in futility but the gist was that they were tasting grass and happy.  :-D  

It's not hard to see why this ewe is so big - she's the original Mowing Machine.

And how could you let a gorgeous June day go by without taking your most dignified dog for a drive to Tractor Supply in your classic car?  

A remarkable day all around!