to post without a single rose

That's the challenge for today. My world is still saturated with roses, but I thought, enough already. Who needs to see yet another pink rose (well, other than me, that is)? So today's post is going to be about other things from the garden.

First off, the strawberry wasn't the only thing I harvested yesterday. I figured that it was about time to harvest some of my lettuce.

I prefer to grow mesclun salad mixes and treat them as a cut and come again crop, taking leaves as I want them.  This year it's taken its sweet time to actually grow. And the arugula has already bolted.

I tasted a flower the other day and it was deliciously spicy.  So, when I decided to cut a salad yesterday, arugula flowers were one of the things I added.

This is my preferred way to eat during the summer (I'd love to eat this way all year long!). Fill the colander with things from the garden. Supplement it with bread and olives and cheese.

Mesclun (my mix included arugula, red russian, endive, chervil, raddichio, red romaine, bibb and salad bowl green), parsley, dill, opal basil, chive flowers, arugula flowers and radishes. I dressed it with a splash of rice vinegar and some sea salt. There are few things better to eat than a salad that's just been harvested.

I did some more harvesting this morning.

I started a little too late in the day. The sun was already starting to shine on the plants which dissipates the essential oils, so I only harvested a little bit.

This bunch became three.

Then I wrapped the bunches with rubber bands (as the stems dry and shrink, the rubber bands will also contract to keep the bunches from falling apart).

Finally I used some yarn to tie the bunches to a hanger and hung the hanger in my closet to dry.  There are lots more flowers to cut. As I was cutting stems from my single plant in the back yard (my front walkway is also lined with lavender plants), roses hung over my head. The bees were buzzing in the flowers and a shadow fluttered over me. It was a huge yellow swallowtail butterfly. So beautiful. What can be better than sitting beneath rose bushes cutting lavender surrounded by bees and butterflies?

For today's painting, I decided that the short-lived arugula flowers and an arugula leaf would be my subjects.

It was fun.

I also painted something else, but it's going to be part of next month's plans, so I'm keeping it under wraps for now.

I hope you are having a wonderful week!