SUSAN SAYS: June has been busy month

— The lovely month of June has arrived and soon the year 2012 will be half gone. My, how time flies!

We’ve stayed busy and the weeks seem to slip quickly by. When Jim’s not at work, he has three yards he’s keeping mowed; and I can usually find something to do in the house, the yard or the flower beds. We had several rainy days at the end of May, which helped the yard and flowers. The rose of Sharon bushes are blooming nicely, and frothy Queen Anne’s lace dots the field just north of the house.

Jim trimmed the bushes beside the driveway to improve visibility when backing out into the street. He also cut the sprouts growing on the cellar and in the flower beds under the south windows. A few weeks ago, he bought landscape timbers and built a new flower bed along the front porch. The following week, I planted some coxcomb and cosmos and even put in a short row of Swiss chard. They’re coming up nicely now, so I’m hoping the rains come in soon as forecast. My project this week was climbing up, pulling the dead grass and weeds on the cellar and burning our brush pile.

Popular author Gladys Taber wrote in “The Book of Stillmeadow” that June is one of the easiest months as far as menus go. “With the first fresh garden crops, meals can be simple and quick,”she said, “and oh, that first salad of baby lettuce leaves just uncurling, crisp red radishes, young chard, sweet scallions!”

We’ve found this to be true, as I cooked green beans and new potatoes from the farmers’ market one evening and, a couple of days later, a big head of cabbage seasoned with smoked sausage.

I didn’t make it to the farmers’ market last Saturday, but my sisters have been sharing their veggies. Mary Alice brought us a couple of cucumbers Friday, and Nancy visited us Sunday afternoon and brought green beans and banana peppers.

June has brought very pleasant weather, and already the month has been filled with adventures. The first Saturday we went to the farmers’ market, and shortly before noon I drove to Sulphur Springs and picked up our friends Hank and Emily.

They went with us to Bentonville where we toured the Museum of Native American Artifacts. We enjoyed seeing the extensive collection of arrowheads and spear points, the baskets and pottery, elaborate headdresses, peace pipes and other Indian regalia. They were all attractively displayed and provided insights into the American Indian way of life.

On Thursday, Hank and Emily came to town again. We enjoyed a tasty lunch at the senior center, vegetable soup, tuna-salad sandwichesand brownies; then I took them out to show off our new wildlife observation/walking trail. We walked the upper part of the trail and got some exercise before taking Hank to the clinic for an appointment with his doctor. Friday afternoon, I dropped by for a visit with Don and Shirley Dennis, who were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary over the weekend.

Last Saturday, we returned to Bentonville and I made a long-anticipated visit to Crystal Bridges. The main parking lot was full so I parked farther away and hiked in on the Tulip Tree Trail, featuring some of the largest trees on the museum grounds. I stopped to photograph the pinebeamed shelter that was a mock-up of the museum’s roof, trees, flowers, a water feature and Robert Indiana’sLOVE sculpture.

I entered the south entrance of the museum, and Deborah Butterfield’s giant cast bronze horse immediately caught my eye. I browsed the gallery featuring temporary exhibits from area museums and visited the “Celebrating the American Spirit” exhibition.

This collection of Colonial to early Nineteenth Century art is currently featuring an exhibit on the North American Indian in the upper gallery and an Arkansas Traveler exhibit in the lower gallery.

I visited the museum store to purchase a souvenir and observed young artists creating personal masterpieces in the Experience Art Studio before hiking back to our vehicle and heading home.

Susan Holland, who works for the Westside Eagle Observer, is a lifelong Benton County resident.

Opinion, Pages 6 on 06/13/2012