June has been a little chillier than anticipated. While I’m thrilled about the extended life of the peonies, I’m not quite ready to embrace the salad-based meals so enjoyable on a sweltering hot summer day. Soup is the answer. Light, filling and full of vegetables. Above all, it’s nice and hot.

If we are going to have soup, let’s serve it up in tureens appropriate for late spring and early summer, when the bees are a-buzzing. These tureens are by Old Time Pottery, sometimes available on eBay.

I managed to accumulate four of them over time. They sit nicely upon antique majolica Gien leaf salad plates and Williamsburg Green Wedgwood shell-edged dinner plates.

I do love a bee theme for summer. There are many fun accoutrements in the genre—honey pots, for starters, like this little antique honeycomb patterned one with raised-paste floral decorations.

The ubiquitous brown honey pot is shaped like a bee skep and coordinates nicely with the two natural vine bee skeps from Etsy.

This little yellow honey pot came from the Beehive Shop, which closed sadly. They had quite a fun collection at one point.

Bee napkin rings from Pier 1 buzzed over to join the soup party.

At first, I thought I’d make a Lemon Honeycomb Cake in the Nordicware honeycomb pan I picked up a few years ago.

But then I discovered a Honeycomb Buns recipe…

…that goes well with Spring Minestrone served in the bee skep tureens.

We’ve been enjoying the soup and buns for two days now!

It won’t be long now before summer is officially upon us. In the meantime, I’ll take advantage of the cooler weather to do more baking and dream up a few more tables with the peonies while they last. Rhubarb and strawberries come to mind….