Thousand shades of green

Summer came early,  already in mid May, at least for one weekend. 24 degrees Celsius in Finland is considered heat.  That was nice continuation to our 9-day holiday in California where the temperature was 26. I still miss the palm trees and turquoise Pacific... A weekend in Kemiö was great, too. The garden and fields were dominated by green - all shades of it. The leaves appeared in a couple of days to most trees, except for oak, cherry and apple trees.

Swallows had arrived and they were busy making their nests under our jetty, as every summer.  The seagulls had finally understood to build their nest elsewhere than on top of our jetty.

The sudden heat made berry bushes to blossom, although apple and cherry trees were still waiting for more warmer days (or nights).  I am happy that the plum trees which I brought ten years ago as 50 cm saplings from my mother’s garden in Turku were now in full blossom. They have found their new home in our garden.

The composting equipment we bought last summer did their job. I distributed some compost soil to the flower benches. Butterflies, such as brimstones and swallowtails, were also busy flying around the flowers. 

The sun was so strong that we had to stay in the shadow in the hottest hours. It was lovely to take a book and read - I'm in the middle of John Grisham's Sycamore Row and it's exciting.

The herbarium  was already pushing the first edible greens: lovage, thyme and chives. I made an omelette for our Sunday breakfast seasoned with plenty of chives and some basil. Rhubarb had grown a lot since our last visit almost three weeks ago. They are best at early summer, and next weekend I’ll make a dessert from rhubarb.