“Take 12” for June

Nasturtiums in my garden. Bright orange – hooray!

A washed-out shot of the coreopsis and roses blooming in our front yard.

Some folks down the street have a pear tree in the their front yard and I’m jealous. Still, it makes me nervous to think about trying to eat dozens of pears before they rot, at least if birds and squirrels don’t beat the humans to the punch.

Then again, I managed to make this tea cake with a surplus of store-bought apricots. Somehow, Meijer is selling the most delicious apricots I’ve ever tasted and I’ve gone through almost two bags of the things. I don’t bake much, but this recipe looked great.

We’ve had so little rain that the creek down the street is drying out.

The very suburban view from my church office windows (houses, houses, houses).

Beagle, pond, and dozens of ducks in the shade of that little willow tree. The tree seems to get a haircut every year or so — it doesn’t have those nice long tendrils hanging down into the water, like most willows do). I continue to be weirded out by the fact that mowed lawn goes all the way to the lake’s edge.

Rushes. And duplexes.

Garlic harvest! The cloves I planted last October were ready to be picked. There’s little as satisfying as pulling garlic plants out of the ground – they make this wonderful little “pop” when all those tiny roots let go of the dirt. The smell of garlic and dirt is fantastic. Rivaled only by…

…garlic drying in our shed, which makes it smell like an Italian restaurant.

The cubbies in our shed.

Garlic is drying on top shelf, on either side of the Christmas tree stand.

OK, this is cheating a bit, but this is a picture of Adam and me on Memorial Day at a county baseball game, for our friend Dave’s birthday. We’re in “old-timey baseball clothes,” per his request. When my dad taught me to take pictures, growing up, he always said, “A picture is always more interesting when there’s a person in it.” Since I’ve got so many garlic, flower, and park shots, I thought I’d add a couple faces.