Usually in October I say goodbye to my garden for the season. I gather my last harvests. Cut as many flowers as I can before frost blackens the plants. It’s a bittersweet time of year.

June! Oh, June. What a magical month.

My peach and cherry trees are filled with flowers. Daffodils are blooming and everywhere I look outside, spring is progressing.

“Autumn is the season to find contentment at home by paying attention to what we already have.”

—unknown

When I checked first thing this morning, the temperature was 31 (30 degrees lower than when I woke up yesterday).

I’m grateful for all these late-season flowers. Not just for me, but for my garden visitors, too. Bees. Butterflies. I still see hummingbirds every day, zooming from flower to flower.

When I sat down to write today’s post, I felt completely unprepared. And for the first time in a really long time, I was tempted to skip blogging this week.

Ah, June in the garden. What a beautiful month.

Written on my calendar today is “Blog: Garden”.

In October you never know what you’re going to get and the hooks by my back door reflect just how changeable it’s been this month.

In June when I wrote to my Joy Letter subscribers I said that June was my favorite month. Right now, though, I’m thinking August might be.

One of the things I love most about my garden and gardening is connecting with nature. I plant my garden and I tend it, but I’m not really in control.

It’s truly amazing how much changes in the garden in just one month.

We’re more than half-way through June. The solstice is just a few days away. Summer is well and truly here.

Not much was happening in the garden in April, but now things are really starting to take off.

Before I dive in to talking about what a typical day looks like around here, I want to take a moment to thank you for sharing your experiences with online subscriptions and communities in last week’s post.

When I woke up on Wednesday the temperature was 43. The warmest we’ve seen this year. On my morning walk I didn’t need a hat. Chickadees and cardinals sang their delight at the taste of spring in the air.

The next day it was more than 30 degrees colder.

The sun is shining, warm and bright. The garden is humming with bees and I catch the scent of roses, mint and spicy tulsi. I step among the blooms with my scissors at the ready,

In Wisconsin by the time November rolls around, we’ve usually had our first frost. Sometimes we’ve already had our first snow, too.

I’m never certain if I’ll have flowers blooming in my garden in October or not.