July's gifts of grace and abundance...

May brought changes... a "retirement" of sorts... but really just a retreat from working in the world and a homecoming to urban homesteading and well-being full-time.  It is abundant provision and grace from God that allowed this change and I am ever grateful.

June brought so many activities... finishing up this or that, getting the gardens going, building bee relationships, visits with friends.

And now July...

The gardens here at Flannel Jammies Farm are bursting with goodness!  We are daily harvesting so many varieties of tomatoes, lovely cool cucumbers, green beans, eggplant, Swiss chard, blueberries, peppers, and herbs of all varieties. 

The front walk herb garden has a permanent resident: the tiniest of bunnies, munching happily on green goodies and hiding under the hawthorne as I come to harvest herbs for supper.

Our sign waves ever so slightly in the warm breeze.

And the bees!  We now have our first hive full of bees and a nucleus colony we just received.  These amazing bees fascinate me morning and evening, each day.  Working together in harmony, they create a safe haven to raise young, they store up golden goodness to get them through the winter, and they reach out into the gardens, pollinating the plants for our daily harvest.  With precision and efficiency, these bees build perfect hex-pattern comb and fulfill each life-cycle task with no laziness, no complaining, no selfishness.  They are a gift in my world, teaching me so much about God's wondrous creation and about living in community.

And speaking of putting away stores for the winter, we've been canning and freezing and dehydrating here, too.  Pickles and beets and jams and relishes and corn... oh! the corn...  I think of those bursts of flavor we'll enjoy in the cold and dark of winter each time the pantry doors open, and I am filled with thanksgiving.

Celebrate July, dear ones.  Give thanks for the harvest.  Play in the rains and laugh, laugh, laugh.  Share the gifts you have been given.  Sunday blessings to one and all from Flannel Jammies Farm...