I don’t celebrate the Saxon “Loaf-mas”/Lammas but I do bake something yummy for this holy day. Pretty lucky today to have some cool weather in which to ply this craft. I’ll make traditional Irish soda bread and plan to take some butter out of the fridge so it’s ready for snacking. I’m also making some kamut, which is a enormous-grained wheat. I’ll turn it into a tabouli-esque salad, with onions and cucumbers and tomatoes.

I began the day at my home altar and relaxed into the day and the days to come. It’s raining here and it breathes of a cooling season, a time when more crops can go into the wet ground.

At last.

July is one of the hardest months here. There is dirt in my garden, cleared of the earlier spring crop, waiting for planting. But July is either too hot or too wet–I never even planted the okra this year and am pondering whether I can get a late crop by planting now. Couldn’t hurt, could it? I have the seed and the space. And if last winter was any indication, we won’t get a hard freeze for several more months.

Ah, well, friends. Watch for the lowering Sun in the West and bring your mind to a place of gratitude as we approach this first harvest fest. Remind yourself that you have blessings as well as challenges and are probably so blessed that you have resources to share.

Especially summer squash.