coming up green

It's summer...for real now.

The pasture is down right verdant.

The raised beds are all planted with seeds and starts.

My children are running (or crawling) carefree and barefoot--becoming the filthiest, happiest urchins that you can imagine until they are scrubbed clean in an evening tub and fall into sleep exhausted from the day's adventures, covered with scratches an mosquito bites.  Summer is, as Sadie would put it, "my best." My heart is full and I am a grateful, exhausted mama (waking up at all hours of the night to apply anti-itch remedies to said mosquito bites or soothe a restless teething baby.)  But morning always brings a stout cup of black coffee and the sounds of birds singing.  I love to tiptoe out to the garden while everyone is still asleep, and have just a minute with my bare feet against the cool earth, and watch all the hard work, all the winter dreamings springing into reality. 

There is nothing quite like a northern summer where all these living things, without hesitation, reach greedily to get their fill of sunlight and also rain, dig deep into rich earth and come up strong and green.