June ~ Eight Weeks in Seven Days

During April and May, here in Dexter, Michigan, it rained for what seemed like 8 weeks. I say 'seemed', but I'm pretty sure it rained almost every day and night. At the end of May, there were ducks in yards and rivers where we had never expected them to materialize. Lo and behold, the clouds parted and the rains stopped. Eight weeks behind on planting our corn and soybeans, the mainstay of our farm, we are running around like chickens with their heads cut off (pardon the term, but we 'do' look like this right now) trying to 'fit' fields, plant seeds, haul manure to the field before we plant, move pastured animals, make sure we have food for next year by dropping seeds in rows in the huge garden, and a billion other small details.

Did I mention that the hens decided to have an egg laying marathon? ha.

Work. I am never bored.

I just wanted to say hello to all my blogeautiful friends out there and to tell you that I have not abandoned writing. No no no. In fact, I have more writing projects going on than you can shake a rain soaked stick at! (:

As soon as all our precious and crunchi-licious non-GMO veggies are tucked safely in the garden, and the last flower is artfully placed in the front yard, I will settle down here with a huge mason jar of iced sweet tea and tell you all about it, for June is my favorite month. (Did I ever tell you that I am a vegetable-a-holic? Yes, I am. And, I don't want to be cured. I'm not a vegetarian, I do eat meat. Yes, a true vegetable-a-holic in which I had my first addiction brought on by a drought of vegetables when I was an undergraduate.

But, back to June. Non non No! That doesn't do her justice, since June is the pinnacle of my year. Let me try that again...June is my FAVORITE month!!! Yes, I love the roses, the fresh plants and birds and insects. I love the butterflies and the bursting forth of life in full 3D touching all five senses.

In June I decorate the house with roses. Fresh roses, dried roses, rose bundles. And, we have tea. Not just afternoon tea, but June Tea. Sweet tea with little cakes decorated with blossoms and frosted violet leaves. For June is the month of sweetness and romance. June is the month I was born. June is the Summer Solstice and the month of ripe full moons hanging low and perfume-y in the sky.

Yes, I will sit down and write to you all...just as soon as those hens decide to call it quits to the iron-chicken triathlon....

Gifts of Summer

Just now, as I was sitting down at the computer to type, I heard a startled bird cry from across the garden, over in our big pine tree. I thought, perhaps, as the solstice sun was setting that a cat might be attacking young birds. And so, out the door I went. I trekked across the garden. When I arrived to the tree, at first I thought there was a large 'moth' hatch going on...it was dusk and hard to see...but then I realized that the tree, some 50 feet high, was swarming with honeybees and that the birds were distressed from all the bees! I stepped back and looked. Amazing. A solstice swarm. Tomorrow, my brother in law, the beekeeper, will have the swarm. They are most likely from one of his hives. I do hope the birds survive unscathed and unstung. Poor things.

This afternoon, in our back sales room, which becomes a catch all over the winter, the inside of the screen door was covered in beautiful summer solstice butterflies! I had gathered two bushels of nettles a couple of weeks ago and, unbeknownst to me, they had little caterpillars all over them when I brought them home. By the time I realized that the little guys had set up 'shop' in our shop with cocoons while the nettles were drying on a screen, it was too late. And here, today, they hatched in all their glory and fluttery winged splendor. My daughter and her little friend held them gingerly on their little girl fingertips and they fluttered in their curly hair. Very summery, indeed.

I also received an early birthday gift (for tomorrow)

from a new kindred spirit friend (a gift in itself!)who gave me a summer solstice bracelet that she created herself of malachite and a hand blown glass ladybug bead, a beautiful quartz crystal, a sliver of magical amethyst (my favorite crystal) and a Native American arrowhead from Tennessee. She delivered it all in little secret pouches of gold and leather and included a bouquet of wild purple flowers and mini sunflower heads. What a truly beautiful day!

I treated myself (while performing the perfunctory grocery shopping this a.m.) to a pink raspberry fondant cake that waits a-cooling in the cooler and even the man at the vacuum repair store (ours conked out yesterday, no wonder on this gritty dirty farm) was pleasant and 'summery' as I dropped old faithful off to be fixed. What magic occurred today. What beauty came forth from the ends of the earth. I wish the solstice occurred more than twice a year. O day of beauty and gifts. A gift that cometh down from above.

Solstice

Solstice

The words rolllllll off my tongue. Isn't it a lovely word? I have threatened to change my name, legally, to...just...plain...SOLSTICE. Not Solstice Lesser. Not Amy Solstice. Just - Solstice.

(Ah, she's gone off the deep end, you say, quietly to yourself). No. I'm turning 42 in two days! I am entitled to dream, a day before one of the most lovely days of the year, of running barefoot through pine scented forests with no responsibility and worries and a singular beautiful name of 'Solstice'. Summer Solstice, the first official day of summer. The longest day of the year (and shortest night of the year). The day when the sun 'stands still'.

The word Solstice is composed from Latin. Sol for sun and sistere (to stand still). During the summer and winter solstices, the visible movement of the sun (north or south depending on your hemisphere) comes to a stop before reversing direction.

And, for those of you wondering about the scientific aspects of the summer solstice, it occurs at exactly the moment when the Earth's axis is tilted greatest towards the sun at degrees of 23° 26'.

The summer solstice was also traditionally represented by the sign of fertility, and June herself is a month that boasts of lush fertility and life. So, this is fitting.

I love the solstices. They are beautiful days that God has given us. One is long and bright and full of life and fruit and smells and activity...sleep few minutes dear children of the solstice, this is a time to revel and dance and make merry. Eat berries, cook outdoors, smell, laugh, run, feel the sun on your skin. Or, just languish in the shade in the heat of the afternoon. (-:

On the other hand, the dark and hibernation inspiring winter solstice is beautiful in its own inky black darkness and cold. It is pinpoint starlight nights that make us run for the shelter of home and hearth and help us turn inward to look at our souls and our homes and the quiet that rests within.Summer is outward and extroverted, winter is inward and introverted. They represent the yin and yang of ourselves. They represent our conservative and our liberal meshing. They represent a balance of the halves that make us whole.

Both days are gifts, and there are many artists who have spent lifetimes painting and communicating their views of the solstices, writing songs or choreographing dances. It is not out of our grasp and everyday reach to take a moment to appreciate the wonder and enchantment of a long bright June day. A day when time and the sun seem to 'stand still'.