June is a special month.It's full of promise.
It is at worst, mild. At best, flaming.
Sometimes both in one day.
It has hollyhocks and lupins ready to explode.
It has cheaper heating bills, less clothes and cleaner dogs.
It has The Teenager going to a leavers party and me being allowed to attempt an 'up-do' on her hair*.
It has the first week of Wimbledon.
It has beach trips.
It has naked feet and sandals.
It has reading outside. And writing outside. All sorts outside.
It has bright, sharp mornings and glorious, to-be-savoured long evenings.
It has nights the colour of the Quink ink we used to use at the convent. Not the blue-black but the blue.
Until the solstice, we are still on the right side of the year. And that's what is so thrilling about June. If you like summer, that is. Which I do. Do you?
*I have always loved playing with hair. When the girls were younger I used to insist they play hairdressers with me. Still do. But I get to be the hairdresser not the client. I'm very firm about that.
Postscript: This post has been sitting forlorn and forgotten in 'drafts' since the beginning of June. I thought I'd better post it before July.
It is at worst, mild. At best, flaming.
Sometimes both in one day.
It has hollyhocks and lupins ready to explode.
It has cheaper heating bills, less clothes and cleaner dogs.
It has The Teenager going to a leavers party and me being allowed to attempt an 'up-do' on her hair*.
It has the first week of Wimbledon.
It has beach trips.
It has naked feet and sandals.
It has reading outside. And writing outside. All sorts outside.
It has bright, sharp mornings and glorious, to-be-savoured long evenings.
It has nights the colour of the Quink ink we used to use at the convent. Not the blue-black but the blue.
Until the solstice, we are still on the right side of the year. And that's what is so thrilling about June. If you like summer, that is. Which I do. Do you?
*I have always loved playing with hair. When the girls were younger I used to insist they play hairdressers with me. Still do. But I get to be the hairdresser not the client. I'm very firm about that.
Postscript: This post has been sitting forlorn and forgotten in 'drafts' since the beginning of June. I thought I'd better post it before July.
27 comments:
Love foxgloves! And, what a coincidence, I've just changed my blog header to my foxglove one. :)
Love June.
I love: "the colour of Quink ink" I don't know Quink ink but I do know the colour of those nights-so now can imagine what the ink must look like and in an extension of this what convent is like and then extending even further what religion is like and then....
(it's so tempting to fantasize about a different live)
June is my favourite, too. Even though I'm currently sitting in my kitchen watching rain hurtle down outside.
June is my favourite too - in fact I was pondering that very thing earlier while walking Molly! It's 'just right' in my opinion :o)
I'm not so fond of playing with hair but adore having mine played with! My daughter used to love being hairdresser when she was younger - not so keen now sadly!
AH, it's the lovely month of May that does it for me, 'Hurray, hurray first of May, outdoor s.. etc'. It's far from flaming here; I'm looking at grey skies and rain on the windows.
(PS A big thank you for buying You Know What.)
Babaloo - Foxgloves are wonderful. I love all those tall, 'cottagey' summer flowers.
Felix - The nuns were very strict about the ink. It had to be Quink and the pens had to be Osmiroid with a calligraphy nib. Convent life could be a rich source of meaphors:-)
Queenie - oh dear. We've escaped rain this weekend. Our turn tomorrow no doubt:-)
Karen - Such a shame daughters have to grow out of such games. Mind you there are some I was glad to see the back of:-)
Chris S - 'You Know What' would be TURNING THE TIDE. Spread the word Chris. I certainly will:-)
I like June so much that I don't want it to end. I want it to stay June forever, even if the climate is kind of shitty right now. I don't want summer to come yet. Time goes by too quickly.
Foxgloves have sown themselves among my veg on allotment they look magnificent. Lovely post. i love early spring. june is gorgeous too as is july.... whenever there are flowers are good months..
I love the Bet Lynch 'Wahoooo, look at me' glamour of foxgloves.
What a lovely post. Glad it poked its head up.
I love the long light evenings. I'm a Summer person and was born in June. It ought to have 31 days - we are being short-changed.
I love June too and would love it better if it weren't for exam stress (sons and students). I don't want the solstice to arrive because I love the days getting longer and longer. One of the things I miss about northern Scotland is the long summer 'gloamings' and the sunsets, looking out over the Moray Firth to the hills of Caithness and Sutherland. Oxford is wonderful but no match when it comes to sunsets - whoosh! there you are: darkness. This is the second time I'll try to post this - the internet is being a bugger again. :)
Oh, and forgot to say - I know exactly the blue of that Quink ink - brilliant image!
Such lovely lines and comments about the pleasures of June, Lane. I won't be the Billy Goat Gruff under the bridge and voice my opinions here! If you can't say something nice. . .
Has Peg had her first bounce of the season out in the garden? And yes, I agree about the cottagey flowers--they are the best.
I love British Junes too. Here June is hot like every other month but not there: the promise of a summer...
Glad to see another post Lane! Yes I love the summer and foxgloves too - though I erally love those dog roses - they smell wonderful.
I like June but it's the Autumn months that have my heart! Thailand doesn't have an Autumn and I was amazed at just how much I missed the blue skies, cold crisp air and the glorious colour of the trees...aaahhh, can't beat it!!
C x
So how many other gems are sitting there in Draft mode? So glad you posted this and I loved the layout.
(perhaps you should have been a hairdresser who writes - thus playing to two of your strengths)
It's "spit-spatting" down in my neck of the woods and Wimbledon hasn't even started yet! Roll on Monday. Hope the "odd-bod" flicker book is coming along nicely :) TFx
I love June and think it's possibly my favourite month.
I have quite a few foxgloves in the garden and some are even taller than me - okay, so that's not incredibly tall, I suppose. Unfortunately it was very windy the other day and now most of them are leaning to one side. Not quite so impressive.
It was so cold today that I had to shut my conservatory doors as there was a cold breeze coming in. The sky was a dull solid mass of grey clouds that hung heavily over the village. It was an airless, soulless kind of day where it seemed devoid of any atmosphere. Time seemed to drag with an endless sense of nothingness, I couldn't believe it was June. Thankfully the rest of the weather for this week is meant to be an improvement. Your lovely post gave me hope!
Nora - the good months always go by too quickly. And yet months like January ...:-)
Sonia - yes, flower months. That sounds right:-)
Spiral - there's no ignoring the Bet Lynches of the flower bed is there:-)
Troy - yes definitely 31 days. More would be good too:-)
And Happy Birthday if it's soon.
Lorna - We have some quite good sunsets near the coast but nothing as wonderful as that. And isn't 'gloamings' a great word:-)
Hope the exam stress is almost over.
Faye - But our summers aren't scorchers like yours Faye, so you're entitled to be a bit Billy Goat Gruff:-)
Peg has indeed had her first bounce. The trampoline is the best place for her to play squeaky because she can't bury it up there:-)
JJ - it's the promise we have to cling to. Ever hopeful of some heat:-)
Flowerpot - and summer down your way must be wonderful too.
Carol - aargh no. Autumn is the beginning of the end. The run up to wi... no I can't say it:-)
French Fancy - I might well have a sort out of 'drafts'. So many half finished bits. Publish or delete in future.
And a writing hairdresser would have been very sensible -but I wasn't:-)
Tom Foolery - no rain here. Sure to soon which will give me an opportunity to do some more odd bods:-)
Debs - Gosh, mine aren't that tall - unless you're 4ft which I don't think you are:-)
MOB - that sound like one of those 'ominous' days. Not nice atall and a waste of our summertime. Hope it clears up this week and June Proper appears:-)
June was my favourite until I moved to the desert... now I'm counting down to the cooler days of August!
I love this poem? So lyrical and mellow. June is one of my favorite months too - scent of honeysuckle and rose and fresh mown grass mingling in the breeze. I could inhale that forever.
I also loved the image of the Quink-blue sky. I grew up in India and the nuns at my school only used Quink. Hadn't thought of that color in years. Thanks Lane. It brought back memories of writing page after page of Eng. Comp. for Sr. Theresa!
What a beautifully refreshing and summery post, Lane - just what's needed through this month of football nonsense (no offence intended, in fact watching fit Italians wrestle each other for a piece of leather and soaked to the skin was also quite refreshing in a whole different way!) lovely. Your post I mean. Not the Italian footballers. I think.
Eternally Distracted - I bet you are:-)
Hema - hi and thank you.
So you had Quink ink too! Do you think the convents got a discount?:-)
I remember having a permanently stained middle finger from all that writing:-)
And yes, fresh cut grass is the best:-)
Debs R - I get you Debs. I think. And I can quite understand the distraction. Although I think you probably need a cold shower too:-)
and it has ... foxgloves.
and if you were the hairdresser, you would quickly put out the CLOSED sign when you saw me coming.
Laurie - oh no I wouldn't:-)
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