Friday was the summer solstice, my favorite day of the year and one I always look forward to. This year we decided to open the house and garden to a party to celebrate with the neighbors. Now we don’t live on a very long street, there are only 11 houses on it. I know the neighbors on either side and directly across pretty well, and a couple of others to say hello to, but I realized when it came time to decide who to invite that there were still some houses where I hadn’t met the people in them. This, after having lived here for almost 2 years now. So, with invitation in hand, off I went to change all that.

Now this wasn’t the easiest thing for me to do. In the first place, I had to rouse myself from my self-absorbed state of semi-reclusion to trade the solitary for contact, and secondly I had to persuade myself that I cared enough to do so. However I did so, and all went well. I was more or less enthusiastically received by all, except one house, where despite the fact that I could hear the sound of a television on inside, no one came to the door. I later found out that a 96 year old man lives there, so I can forgive him for a) not hearing the door or b) not caring in the slightest to rouse himself to trade the solitary for contact.

I also had to rouse myself to make a party happen, leaving the outdoors to be inside to make lists and shop and such. The biggest part of that is the “rousing myself” as the rest, the technical, is easy for me. Once a caterer, always a caterer. It turned out to be very much worth it. Most came, including my newly discovered neighbors and some I hadn’t talked to much. Many were also meeting their neighbors for the first time and seemed delighted. Lots of laughter, the food was eaten (note: to avoid leftovers put it in front of them, never a buffet) and it was all good. The clouds which had hung around all day lifted for the 3 hours (5:00-7:00+) of the party, returning after everyone had left. The Summer Solstice party in The Garden was great fun. June 21st is also my mother’s birthday, another reason for it being my favorite day, so Happy Birthday Mom.

This year the solstice coincided more or less with the supermoon – a full moon “super” close to the earth on Saturday. Much looking forward to this sight, I spent all day with one eye on the sky which was cloudy right up until sunset. By then I was wrapped up in a lounge chair with my book, tripod and camera at the ready, pointed in the wrong direction it turned out. When the moon finally came up over the trees in the farground, the clouds of the day parted (I’m not making this up) and I watched the moon travel through the sky behind the huge trees until I was too chilled and tired to stay there anymore.

As well as welcoming visitors to our own garden, I’ve been visiting a lot of other people’s gardens lately, some of them neighbors but also those of various Garden Club Tours around and about this time of year. This is great fun, seeing what lies beyond those garden gates, and always leads to long lists of new shrubs and trees and perennials I’d like to have, which of course also leads to fantasies of having more space to put all this more more more into. On this property there’s probably another bed in the back yard to go in (who needs all that grass) and perhaps also replacing a side driveway (where the car is currently taking up valuable garden real estate) with a big pergola, expanding The Bunkie patio (above) and the Fuchsia Ranch. After that, no more room for expansion. I happen to love spending almost all of my spring days working the garden, but I also recognize that while this creation of a new garden is great fun, it is a lot to maintain and stay on top of in this temperate climate where everything grows like crazy. The space we have is, in the long run (before we’re dead that is), probably a good enough space/labor combination. I wrote a cautionary poem to myself on just this subject…

Despite its charms
It’s a hell of a lot of work
Remember this
When next you covet more

The photo of the bees on the eryngium was taken yesterday – 2 bees of dozens furiously chowing down on this amazing flower with its neon blue flowerheads and stems. No zoom was used, the camera lense was about 3 inches away from these gorgeous little creatures. They couldn’t care less about me or my camera so close to them.