In June, I patiently search for the first signs of summer.
Listen closely, and you can
hear the birdsong at sunrise. It’s the doves at our house who start the calliope
of song if we leave our bedroom windows open. The nosy robins are back, nesting
under our deck and in the rhododendron. Their first fledglings have already been
booted out of the nest and intermittently (and annoyingly) squawk, calling for
a parent. The brazen sparrows have also returned and have kicked the bluebirds
out of their nesting box. Only one lone hummingbird visits our feeder.Rain in June is a silver
spoon as the old adage goes. It’s the month when vegetation emerges and gardens
in the North are planted which will yield bountiful crops throughout the next
four months and into fall. This year, my bucket garden has been watered quite
often by the gray clouds hovering in the sky. I decided to change it up a bit. I’m
growing some herbs: lemon thyme, rosemary, oregano, and parsley. Every year I
grow a plant of basil on the patio.
The flower of June is the rose which is my favorite because of its soft, layered petals and delicate scent.
I was lucky to be born on a scorching, 90+ degree, June day—the last one of the month—right in the middle of haying season, as my Dad used to point out with a slight grumble in his voice.
When June arrives, farmers push
hard during the sweltering sunny days to get a hay field cut, dried, and baled. The
sweet and intoxicating scent of newly mowed grass fills the air and
forces everyone near to pause and enjoy it, even if the work of cutting, baling,
and storing it is hot, intense, and tiresome.
Do you have favorite sights,
scents, and sounds of summer?
As poet James Russell Lowell
so aptly writes about the month:
And what is so rare as a day in June?
Then, if ever, come perfect days;
Then Heaven tries the earth if it be in tune,
And over it softly her warm ear lays:
Whether we look, or whether we listen,
We hear life murmur, or see it glisten…
~ James
Russell Lowell – 1819-1891
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