Then, if ever, come perfect days. . .
--From: The Vision of Sir Launfal by James Russell Lowell
Like a swindler playing shell games, May’s unstable weather
finally allowed summer to emerge from beneath its ever changing days and nights of warm to chilly and rainy to clear. The sun climbed higher,
chasing the cold from the winds. For those who wait all year to enjoy summers
in Pennsylvania, June’s arrival
heralds a kaleidoscope of exquisite scents, sounds and scenes.
There is nothing more uplifting than the first smell of
clover-scented grass, the delicate fragrance of wild roses, or the aroma of rain-soaked
earth mingled with new green foliage. Old, gray weathered barns, tucked among
the distant hills, have overflowing mows of sun-kissed, sweet-smelling hay.
If you listen closely, you can hear the rustling of the pines,
the singing of a meadowlark or catbird, and the humming of busy bees. In the
evening, when summer breezes drift though open windows, they carry the lowing
of cattle in distant fields, or the cicadas and crickets conversing on the
lawns and in the bushes. Tree frogs and bullfrogs chatter and croak, and far
off, a loon or coyote calls in a lonesome voice.
Along the roadways, blackberry bushes bow down with frilly white blossoms that will bear black, sweet, ripe fruit in July. High above, billowy white clouds skip across a sky of robin’s egg blue. In the tall grass, wild strawberries elbow for room with buttercups, daisies, and blue chicory. Mornings bring hummingbirds to perform midair pirouettes among the flowers, and when the sun has gone to rest, bats soar over the treetops and fireflies twinkle as they play a game of light tag.
June is a month when nature’s at its best and the scents, sounds, and sights of summer make us glad we are alive. Oh, “what is so rare as a day in June?”
Along the roadways, blackberry bushes bow down with frilly white blossoms that will bear black, sweet, ripe fruit in July. High above, billowy white clouds skip across a sky of robin’s egg blue. In the tall grass, wild strawberries elbow for room with buttercups, daisies, and blue chicory. Mornings bring hummingbirds to perform midair pirouettes among the flowers, and when the sun has gone to rest, bats soar over the treetops and fireflies twinkle as they play a game of light tag.
June is a month when nature’s at its best and the scents, sounds, and sights of summer make us glad we are alive. Oh, “what is so rare as a day in June?”