In my mind, summer starts when the peonies burst into bloom. This began today. This morning, they were tight little balls – on her arrival home from work this afternoon, Tuffy P announced they had burst, and rushed out with the camera. Our peonies start blooming several days after our neighbours’ flowers do – maybe because we have less sun, or maybe these are a slightly later variety. I really don’t know.
27th Street 
Hi Eugene! Nice blog you have here! I just discovered it when I was writing my own post featuring photographs of peonies–it came up as a suggestion for a related article, so I linked to it in my “Related Articles” section at the bottom of my post today. (It’s here, in case you want to take a peek: http://www.joyfullygreen.com/2014/06/my-week-in-5-photos-blooming-and-growing-and-not-just-the-flowers.html). Summer = peonies for me as well. What a strange and gorgeous flower…
Happy to “meet” you.
Best,
Joy