I’ve experienced several summer ‘firsts’ this week.

My plum tomatoes, grown in dollar store buckets and organic soil, have just begun to bear ripe fruit. I’m thinking of ripening these a few more days before I heat them in olive oil and a little garlic powder. Ladled over a bit of pasta, they will be a summertime treat for lunch.

I bought a few of those bargain packages of lily mixes this Spring. Usually, when I buy these mixes, the first year flowers are smallish. Oh my! This year I feel blessed because my package yeilded this amazing yellow lily. Whoo-hoo! Every time I see it I want to sing. It’s gorgeous, but the one drawback is it doesn’t have the lily scent of Stargazers and other fragrant varieties. Still…the color more than makes up for the lack of fragrance. This lily is part of Cee’s Flower of the Day.

Next week, I’m hoping to write a series on how I save and bring to maturity Black Swallowtail Butterflies. I’ve shared these steps in the past on the blog, but hope to be a bit more thorough this year. I’ve discovered a few new tips quite by accident. Today, the first chrysalis yielded the treasure developing within. This is one of the best early butterflies that has ever hatched on my porch. It was huge. The Swallowtail climbed out of the chrysalis around 9:00 a.m. I have found most of this species emerges at this time . He/She dried off for near three hours and then flew toward the doorway of the porch. I opened the door. The butterfly was very strong and fit. It flew up to about twenty feet and was over the neighbors house and out of sight in less than ten seconds. Hurrah! I hope it finds a mate and creates many more generations of Swallowtails this summer.