The Baboon Congress

june splendor

101 Comments

Today’s guest post could only be by tim.

june is my favorite month.

the newness of vacation has the kids all a flutter and the weather is always pretty darn close to perfect. the birds are singing and the flowers are blooming. this is the way the world is supposed to be.

minnesota which gets a bad rap december and january could not make you prouder than it does in june. loons and ferns and thunderstorms and lakes and outdoor festivals and art fairs and parades and celebrations.

june was the beginning of the time of year that meant growth. when i went to school i would leave the day after school ended. vw van for the westward trip. the best travel happens before the 4th of july. It is like having an exclusive on all the wonderful places in the world. Ely, leach and dl are the spots that come to mind but I enjoyed the duluth blues fest for a couple years 20 years ago and the kayak trip to brule every first weekend in june for 20 years.

Years later it was Montana on route to many other places Canada. west coast zig zagging the rockies ( my favorite ) and all the while realizing I had the great luck to be able to do this and should savor it now before the responsibility of life aced me out of the ability to go. I realized later that I have a responsibility to pass on the ability to camp and vagabond to roll with the vibes of the moment in whatever moment you find yourself in. it is where I truly excel and among the best stuff I teach to my children.

Winding through the back roads I often don’t know where I am while I am there. It doesn’t matter to me at all. It is the moment not the details . Montana Idaho Utah Wyoming Colorado Arizona New Mexico then finish it up with the Washington Oregon California part of the trip wonderful places all but I realized after al my travels that Minnesota is the part of the world is where I have the perspective I enjoy. Never realized it more than hanging in Atlanta for a couple of weeks.

I haven’t gotten out much in june for a couple years with baseball and other summer commitments but I do love the memory of taking my oldest kids out on the road 3 or 4 days after school ended and road tripping it for three or 4 weeks to nowhere in particular for our time together. Nice way to do it. Maybe its time to put an x on the calendar for this summer before it all gets spoken for.

but june is the best.

what do you prize most about this time of year?
what do you make certain to make time for and never miss?

101 thoughts on “june splendor”

  1. Morning all! Lovely post, tim… although as I’m typing this, it’s 54 degrees. I had to wear socks and a sweatshirt to bed last night! So I guess I’m not all onboard about how wonderful the weather is in June this year!

    The teenager and I have lots of rituals… things that we do every year and one of them that falls in June is strawberry picking. I started picking strawberries years ago with my best girlfriend, Sara. Her kids often tagged along, so when the child came along, she was also brought. Depending on timing and weather, we often bring a picnic lunch for after picking. Then when we get home and the sorting, cleaning, freezing and jamming starts. I usually make 10-12 jars a year… freezer jam. Oh, and of course, the strawberry shortcake, strawberry ice cream, strawberries on salad… everything strawberries for a few days. There have been a couple of years where things just didn’t work out w/ my girlfriend, then the teenager and I have gone out on our own. Not nearly as fun and somehow the strawberries eaten right in the field don’t taste quite as good.

    The funny part of all this — the teenager doesn’t actually like the picking very much. She loiters arounds, moves the little flags, lifts the strawberry container from place to place, but doesn’t pick too many berries. So last year I commented to her that if she didn’t want to come, she didn’t have to. She was irrate at the suggestion!

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    1. As a child I HAD to pick about 10 kinds of berries, wild little bug-infested thorny little ones in the worst places in NE MN. I still will NOT eat blueberries. So I guess one of my adult rituals is to not pick berries.

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      1. I completely understand – we all rebel against childhood requirements. My ex spent several summers de-tasseling in Iowa and as an adult, wouldn’t eat corn on the cob. I worked years in bakeries and will never eat anything slightly resembling a “rum ball”. Since I grew up a city girl, picking berries is a sport that I didn’t come across until adulthood, so I think of it as fun, not a chore.

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      3. Sheesh, you have a good memory. He wasn’t actually a farmer, although grew up in Iowa. He was, however, a preacher’s kid, although I think his “extreme frugalness” came from his mother’s side. She took it to an art form. One year she gave him several shirts for his birthday, all clearly from a garage sale (although they were all in very good shape, I must say) — but one of them had initials on the pocket that weren’t his!

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      5. Oh, I am very laid back in this regard, Steve. I make no demands on myself re not berry-picking. I am so dedicate to not berry-picking that I only rarely even think about not berry-picking.

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      6. We are supposed to have six varieties of berries growing on our land up by the Apostles Islands. They begin being big enough to pick in June. My daughter used to cruise those berry patches with our English setter Spook, who wore a little basket around his neck. Molly picked berries and Spook stole a few from the bushes, picking them delicately with his lips. Then Molly would return to the cabin with a mound of berries of mixed species which she would surround with pastry to make a birthday pie for her dad. The memories are sweeter than the berries were!

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      7. Lake Superior basin is berry heaven, especially east of the lake. Straw, rasp, blue, thimble, goose, pin cherries, choke cherries, June berries . . . eh . . . what am I missing?

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    2. Nicely done, Clyde. And you are so right. Fats Domino lived in New Orleans, but when he said he found his thrill on Blueberry Hill he was referring to a spot not far from my Lake Superior cabin. The train that ran from Trego to Hayward was “the Blueberry Line,” and it would stop (in season) from time to time so passengers could disembark to pick berries along the route.

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  2. Good morning to all:

    June is my big month for gardening. In fact, from May into September gardening is my highest priority. May might be a little ahead June as a gardening month for me and June is second. I would be a little cranky if I had to take very much time off from gardening in either June or May. I am trying to be more flexible and allow more time for other things in May and June. If it was only up to me, most of my traveling would be in the winter. I’ve never done the kind of traveling you described, tim. just taking off without much of a plan. I guess it would fun to try that some time.

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    1. Will you be able to do so when you move to the Cities?
      I lost a place to garden two moves ago. I should drive down and help you. Or at least stand in it. I want to see the one you showed on here.

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      1. Clyde, the place we will move to in the cities has a fairly big yard. I will have to cut down a tree that is in the middle of the yard and then I will have a fairly large area for gardening. You certainly are welcome to visit any time, Clyde. I can always use help with gardening because I never seem to get any of my gardening projects completely under control.

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    2. JIm, you and Clyde are reminding me of a summer ritual from my childhood known as “looking at the garden”. I don’t remember ever doing it in Iowa, but when we came to visit family for a couple of weeks in the summer, we always had to “look at the garden” which involves walking the perimeter, being told what each of the rows are (which of course you already knew) and the exchange of pleasantries about how well it all looks, while the gardener expresses their concern about how things are doing, or what might happen, or how it all looks lovely now, but they just hope we don’t get hail (or drought, or flooding or raging bug infestation……).

      It’s a lovely little social exchange-just did it this morning with my neighbor in her garden (she is also nice enough to let me hang out the laundry on her lines-another fine summer ritual).

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      1. One of my good friends has a huge yard of gardens. She is truly a master and loves to have visitors. She knows the name of every plant and its habits, and when she gives a tour, she is absolutely giddy. Her name is Sunni. A perfect fit.

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      2. Excellent post, MIG. This is one of those shared social rituals in small towns that didn’t transfer well when people moved to “the Cities.” For so many small town folk, the garden was common ground with everyone else. It gave you something to talk about and learn about (and be slightly competitive about!).

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      3. I just did this last week with my good friend in the neighborhood, Lori. I had just finished up the last stage of putting out the mulch around all the plants when she came over and we walked through front and back yards to look at my various plantings! So even a city girl can keep up!

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      4. My mother had two very large green thumbs, one dark green and the other pale green. So every evening one of us would have to walk the garden with her, to look at the gardens, the orchards, the berry patches, etc. Our border collie waited each evening for it. It was kind of a joke with all of his, her included, but we did do it, except during haying season. Not all evenings, but some we would go up a forest road to a field on a saddleback of our neighbors where we had a potato patch. From there we could see across Lake Superior to Steveland, or at least the Apostles. We had some years some other distant potato fields. (It’s wise to not plant potatoes in the same place more than a couple of years in a row in that area, and we grew all our potatoes for the year.) All told if we did them all, it could be a 4 mile walk. As the last child it was left to me to do all the walks. I do not delighted more, my mother in observing the daily growth or the dog in the walk itself.

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      5. I’m kind of a messy gardener. This year I’m trying to be a little neater so that the gardens will be more presentable for taking people out to see them. I get carried away with growing all kinds of things and don’t take enough time to keep things looking good.

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      6. Me too, Jim – several of my flower gardens are a mix of intentional and volunteer wild stuff. They all look a little rangy. And our lawn is actually more of a mowed meadow, with lots of spots we mow around so we can enjoy the wild daisies, hawkweed, etc.

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  3. You ask two questions, you get two answers.

    My father passed away seven years ago this month – on a Sunday afternoon. The child and I had been out at the beach all day with a group of friends so I got the call that afternoon at about 5, when we got back home. At that point getting a flight that night was out of the question and as I thought about it, I realized having our car in St. Louis might come in handy. While I made some calls for dog/cat care and to let my boss know the deal, I handed the child a packing list (I have a template saved on the computer) and let her pack her own bag. By 7 p.m. we were on the road, child already in her jammies. After about an hour, we stopped for a potty break and gas. It was then that the child asked where we were staying that night. I told her that we would drive until I got too tired and then find a place. She said “No, I mean where are we staying?” I gave her the same answer as before and she repeated the “where are we staying” question twice more. Even at the age of nine, she knew me well enough to be astounded that I had driven away from home without an actual plan!

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    2. When my former wife and I toured England, Wales and Scotland we lived free of a plan, like VS. We’d point the nose of the Austin Cooper Mini in some promising direction and just go. Toward late afternoon we would become a little anxious and then would look for “B&B” signs in windows. We always found one, and what a lovely way to meet people. It was liberating to not have a plan.

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  4. RIse and Revel in June Baboons:

    Like VS, I do a lot of “jamming” all summer, though my favorite wild fruits come ripe in August. Last summer I posted a Wild Plum Cake recipe from the Pioneer days of my family. If you want to make that cake, then you must have plums. Each August I hunt along the edges of woods, bike trails and fence rows for them. Near my sister’s house we have found a bush that produces them fairly regularly. These plums make our cake, but also fabulous jam.

    Wild grapes are the other wild fruit that make an intensely flavored jelly. Before my son left home for adulthood, I invited him along on my wild grape picking expeditions. I found a naturally occurring arbor in the South part of our suburb on a steep hill. One year as he and I picked from these vines, I stretched too far, slipping down the hill with a grape vine twisted around my leg. I came to a stop upside down, immobile. Son had to haul me out of there. Without spilling my bag of grapes, of course.

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    1. I made elderberry jam for a number of years. I haven’t done this recently. We are now able to get elderberry jam at the Albert Lea farmers market and I had some on my toast this morning.

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    2. I love elderberry jam. Elderberry soup is also delicious served piping hot and with a zwiebac!. Yum. That’s what Danish kids are fed for a cold instead of chicken soup, at least it was when I was a kid eons ago.

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    1. I love the use of the word “plutocratic” in this piece. Bill Moyers just talked our “plutocracy” on Thursday night at Plymouth Congregational. Was anybody else there? I didn’t see anyone else, but it’s a big sanctuary and it was full!

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  6. Nice post, tim. I deeply envy your point of view that allows such a trip; and I envy the trips.
    As a teacher, and this is very dull, I used June to get ready for next school year. My kids were busy with things like swimming and church stuff and my wife was working afternoons and evenings at the library. So I would review the previous year in each course, make any changes in plans and the materials including the textbooks which I wrote myself, lay out the calendar, etc. This was before computers, so it took much more work. That meant I was completely free in August when my family was more available and which is a better month on the North Shore.
    After I left teaching, June was a big travel month in our business. I was often able to bring my wife with.
    So now that I am retired, I do not have special things lined up for June. Hmmm?

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    1. you just got back form one road trip is there time for another? i would love to jump in the car for a couple weeks n montana right now, but i have the sons graduation party tomorrow and they would miss me for sure. ah the words largest cowand teddy roosevelt national monument in north dakota en route to yellowstone via beartooth pass with a back road zgzag to glacier for a return through the black hills would hit the spot right about now. can i come with?

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      2. This is the summer when we are most needed for babysitting because of what is going on in the professional lives of or daughter and son-in-law. He is going to seminary part-time and working a couple of part-time jobs. She has a heavy load with sick people and dealing with a touchy issue. And it is the best summer to babysit. A 6- and an 8-year-old are perfect to babysit. Entertain themselves mostly, still think we are cool, which will change in a couple of years (both are planning to live in our apartment building when they go to college), fun to take places, etc. I am watching Phineas and Ferb right now–very clever show.
        But we will take some short trips during the summer. We plan to go to the arboretum every two weeks and take them with a time or two. Go to the Shore soon. But not the Black Hills; been there so many times when our daughter lived out that way. Enjoy the party, by the way. Fun events, grad parties. Sort of
        miss them.

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      4. We will be in SF this summer and/or Brookings, but we always meet my sister and her husband when we go to SF. We hit the antique stores.

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      6. SD will get some our tourist dollars this summer as well. Teenager wants to see “the heads” as she calls them.

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      7. Quick story about “the heads.” I mentioned an obnoxious woman named Lydia in an earlier post this week. She wasn’t impressed by “the heads” when she saw them. She hopped up on some stone railing with her back to the statues and went on knitting. “Of course, I recognize George and Martha Washington,” she said. ” But who is that other couple up there?”

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  7. I love this time of year too, from when the lilacs are blooming through the time when the ferns are really lush and the wild geraniums are blooming and nothing has had a chance to get brown around the edges yet.
    Berry picking is something I am sure to do every year too – I’m poor in money but rich in raspberry canes. But that’s later in the year.
    I never miss the state fair. Although it can be warm and sticky, I usually find I nice day to go. The air smells different then. And around Labor Day the raspberries start to ripen. I think that’s my favorite time of year.

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    1. State Fair is another of those things that I never experienced growing up in St. Louis so revel in as an adult. The last couple of years I’ve gone twice a year, once with the teenager and once all by myself (teenager does not think that looking at large pumpkins, butter sculptures or crop art is a good way to spend time at the fair!)

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      1. I don’t remember much about what the Fair was like when I was a teenager – mostly about eating and going on rides, I suppose. Now I think standing around looking at everything is the essence of the Fair. But that’s because I’m a little brown around the edges myself.

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      5. thats what i was referring to. i used to enjoy a beer in canada. i don;t know if wad labatts or molson. it was called sweet cream ale and it was delicious. il give the leine a try and report in to let you know if you need to be concerned about me stealing your beer while you re not looking

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  8. June is voluptuous as an absolute thing–with weather and smells and flowers and birds as extravagantly abundant as they can be–but it also has a special standing as the month when the bloom of spring reaches its full flower. June confirms the promise of the prettiest days of spring, and its beauty is that of a person in their 20s. May can look a lot like winter, and July gets to be to much of everything, but June is kissed by God and given to us as a treasure to adore.

    For me, June was our time for vacations from the sultry, boring, commercial landscape of endless Iowa cornfields. We fled that for two weeks a year to restore our souls in the chilly, pine-scented air of our favorite northern Minnesota lake.

    I mostly remember drifting in shallow weedy bays in a wooden lapstrake rowboat, flicking out surface flies with a fly rod. Bluegills, perch, bass and pumpkinseed sunfish would drift up through columns of weeds to inspect my flies, and in that clear water they were as visible as if there had been no water. I would pick a particular fish and try to catch that one, discouraging the others while teasing to the chosen one. Bullfrogs would belch out their offers of romance while red winged blackbirds shrilled territorial challenges to each other. Pond hawk dragonflies would hover over lily pads, hovering and moving mysteriously like helicopters. Once I had entered that world I lost all sense that there was another, and I could as easily spend six hours as one just soaking in all of it. I sometimes look back now and wonder if those will forever remain the happiest moments of my life.

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    1. god you are good at that steve, you remember and perfectly ennunciate the detais that paint the picture. thanks for another little picture painted to perfection

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      3. I’m not even a believer, but the phrase “June is kissed by God” will be with me forever. Thanks, Steve.

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    2. Steve, you do have an evocative way with words. And I just want to say that if the moments described do in fact turn out to be the happiest moments of your life, you could surely have done worse. I’m sure though, that there’s plenty of blissful moments ahead. Happy Birthday tomorrow. Hope you have a great day.

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      1. happy birthday steve. thanks jane i don’t follow facebook well enough to keep up.. theres somethng you never miss…your birthday

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  9. Love your post, Tim. You’d make aheckova Boundary Waters guide. Or anywhere with ticks.

    Ahhh June … the glory of being outside in it … cool mornings, digging and planting, dirt under my fingernails, scratch marks from trimming thorny bushes, farmer’s tan.

    Its music! The Rascals’, A Beautiful Morning, instantly sends me back to my disoriented early adolescence. I can visualize Tim’s speakers blaring over the sound of the wind with the vw windows rolled down.

    When I’m back in rural IA, my sister and I take the car and look for asparagus along the fence lines. She knows all the spots by heart and we often discover that others know them too. Both she and my parents have their own beds, but the thrill is always in the hunt. Baboons know this from birth.

    Speaking of, I’m heading that way this very day. My niece is home from San Francisco with a new baby girl for us to dote upon. Have a great weekend everybody! Catcha later on the flipflip.

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  10. My husband and I were out early today walking around in the garden, and he said that now everything is planted and the iris are starting to bloom, this is his favorite time of year. One ritual that we always had in Luverne in early June was the Flag Day parade. All the school children had to march down main street carrying little US flags, and the band would march, too. That parade always signaled the beginning of summer. It’s been a really long time since they had a Flag Day parade in Luverne. I don’t know why.

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    1. It is really a June day on the prairie today, Renee. Bright sun filtering through clouds, some dark and low, but not rainy. Cool but steamy early morning with mist rising off the corn field. I do love the prairie any time of the year.

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      1. I’ve tried to tell his Lilving Flag story, unsuccessfully, a number of times. Would be worth digging out the tape… LOL just thinking about it.

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  11. Mornin’ all. Nice post tim. Those van trips sound like lots of fun.

    What I love about this time of year is the lushness of everything. One of the advantages of a spotty memory is discovering anew what I planted in previous years. I have no recollection of planting a Shasta Daisy last year, but there it is with its dark green foliage, and buds about ready to pop. I still have no idea what those spikey things in front of it are! I should be able to tell in a week or two. The Vinca vines and Sweet Woodruff planted last year as scrawny little specimens, have taken off and are blooming profusely. This year I managed to get the wire cages around the Peonies situated before they got too big and started blooming, so now their display remains standing rather than sprawling on the ground from the weight of the blossoms. And the roses, what can I say? I planted roses late in life, thinking they were difficult to grow. What a shame. Their intense color, profuse and long lasting flowers, and delicate fragrance all make them so worth while.

    What I make time for and rarely miss? That’s easy! The St. Paul Farmers’ Market. That’s where you’ll find me almost every single Saturday morning, throughout the growing season, at 6:45 A.M. This morning’s seasonal offerings included sugar snap peas, tiny new potatoes, and baby chard and so many other goodies. While I love all the fresh veggies, plants, flowers, cheeses, organic meats, etc you can buy there, what I treasure most is the connection to the people who are growing and selling these things. The personal relationships that are built over the years. This morning the man from the Wisconsin trout farm who I chat with every Saturday, had brought me some medisterpølse, a Danish sausage he had picked up for me from the Danish butcher in Frederic, WI. I hadn’t even asked him to do it, but he knew my husband and I are both Danish, and thought we’d enjoy some. Now where else do you get that kind of service? My favorite baker knows that, without fail, I’ll have the darkest of his Roasted Onion and Gorgonzola loaves. This time of year I’m a rare shopper at the local supermarket, but I’m sure no one notices.

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  12. I envy you that Farmer’s market.My best friend lives in Mpls and goes there quite often. Her tales are amazing, just like yours.

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  13. Ah such lovely stories from everyone this morning. What I love about June is that it is the beginning of the great yawning stretch of summer. An entire three months of doing “nothing’ (my favorite pastime as a kid – I haven’t gotten over it). People seemed a little disappointed, or jealous, when I respond to their “what are you doing this summer?” question with, “not much” or “we have nothing planned.” It’s almost like it hasn’t occurred to them that you can leave a summer unplanned and still enjoy it. Frankly, it’s my favorite way to do things. We have an excellent weekend unplanned for today and tomorrow. I have a birthday party I will bike over to for a friend turning 60, and Daughter has art class tomorrow morning. That’s it – 4 hours at most of planned activity. We may help the neighbor with their fence, I will probably pot the impatiens I bought yesterday, the library may get visited, a mother-daughter bike ride may happen, sidewalk chalk may come out, the trampoline may be bounced upon, potions and adventures may be created by the child, the dog will, no doubt nap. A lovely weekend for doing “nothing.”

    Happy graduation to the seniors and their parents (tim and Ben – anyone else that I have forgotten?). Lovely weekend for celebrations.

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    1. Anna, I’m so with you about doing nothing, not having plans for every moment. I’m retired, and the question I get asked the most is: “So what are you doing with your time?” My reply “Whatever I feel like, whenever I feel like it.” Most people are astonished that I’m frittering away my life without some sort of schedule, while I’m relishing that I’m free to indulge any spontaneous notion.

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      1. One thing I did not mention, since it often actually starts in May, is the Annual Explanation of Husband’s Project. The project has been different each year, but Husband seems to find some project or activity that yawns over the course of the whole summer and requires a certain amount of explanation – last year and this, the Project was smack dab in the front yard: last year it was taking down a dying maple tree and digging out the roots, this year it is turning the resulting mud pit into a rain garden. Husband would tell you he is Doing Something. I would tell you this is his version of Doing Nothing all summer – it’s puttering with a purpose, but it’s still a Nothing sort of Something.

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      2. Margaret, you are my role model. I keep thinking I need an answer like “Oh, I volunteer at….”. What you are doing is what I want to do.

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      3. BiR, I understand completely. I think people ARE looking for that kind of answer, but they’re not getting it from me. I’ve been duty bound and guilt ridden most of my life, it’s time for me to be doing what I want. Go for it BiR!

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  14. Speaking of rituals, my wife is up now so it is time for me to go write a sermon, for Pentecost Sunday. Nothing is less Lutheran than Pentecost.
    Later, much later.

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    1. My daughter goes to Sunday school at a friends church – it’s an art class with a few Bible stories on the side (sans dogma). Tomorrow they will be making paper airplanes to throw from the choir loft during the church service to celebrate Pentecost (red airplanes symbolizing the descending flames, I’m sure) – definitely not Lutheran. But fun.

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      2. You all must be thinking of a different breed of Lutherans! I know I’ve seen plenty of visual representations of the spirit descending in the various Lutheran churches I have been part of through the years. (but we are Tim Waltz, not MB Lutherans-its a big tent). One tradition at our current church that I do enjoy on this day is that parts of the text are read in different languages by the people in the congregation who speak them.

        Spent yesterday out in the yard/garden, which sounds a lot like yours, BiR. It has been neglected up until now due to work and weather, so as an English garden, it was more of a football rowdy than anything else-but we are getting there. Also happy to report that something like a vegetable garden is finally really underway. It was one of those days where I never intended to get so much done, but it was such a fine day and one thing just sort of led to another. Today, we plant the racoon attractant. We have very little room, but I still like the idea of going out back and picking a meal or two of sweet corn-I suppose that is the Iowa upbringing…..

        Happy birthday, Steve!

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      3. MIG – the Lutherans at the church I grew up in might actually have been okay with this – the same congregation now would probably help throw planes (which the congregation at my friend’s church did once the kids threw them into the sanctuary – lovely to see all the red and orange and yellow planes popping up like brightly colored popcorn while everyone sang).

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  15. The north country and my little town of Cornucopia beckon. My first trip to the cabin without a dog. I expect lupines, daisies and buttercups in abundance.

    I’m not sure when I’ll return. Not sure if I can post from a coffee shop. Whatever . . . enjoy the lushness of June.

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  16. Afternoon everyone!
    Random thoughts: my grandfather always had lots of strawberry plants and I HATED picking strawberries. Ground cherries too. I will stop at the strawberry farms but I only buy pre-picked. Can’t argue with the freshness but I don’t want to pick them.
    I love early Spring; when you can smell the dirt and the rain. I love doing the fieldwork and planting and seeing things start to grow. How a green mist will spread over the fields…
    And I love the fall harvest and plowing up the fields. Seeing the final results and getting ready for the next year…

    Graduation last night- parents were told to hold their applause until all the graduates had received their diplomas. But there was random cheers through out including us. We ‘WOOT’ed five or six times for our son and his friends. After it was over an older gentleman in front of me turn around and asked if I knew I was a ‘loud mouth’ before? I laughed and thanked him but I’m not sure he meant it as a compliment. And his family cheered their graduate too! Guess I am a rule breaker.

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    1. Way to go, Ben. How many times in your life do you get a chance to stand up and cheer out loud for your child?

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  17. Inside for just a bit here – glorious day. Not only is the weather nice and the back-breaking part of the season’s gardening is done, but the teenager has been willing to spend the morning w/ me on the trip to the hardware store and Bachman’s. I’m ashamed to say that when she wants to spend time with me, I am a complete pushover. We stopped for kettle korn (at the liquor store near our house, they often sell kettle korn on the parking lot on Saturdays AND she talked me into a smoothie as well. Off to mowing and weeding!

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  18. Hope everybody had as glorious a day today as I did!

    BiR… I think you recommended the squirrel book earlier this week? Very funny — I read it this afternoon while sitting out in my yard! Thanks!

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  21. OK, I’m home again and just read the last 3 days’ comments. What a rich couple of days, Babooners – glad to know you all! Thanks for this weeks’ guest posts. And I should probably also tell you I’m on my second glass of wine.

    What I prize most about June is the LUSHNESS. The song got it right “June is bustin’ out all over…” (from Carousel). “Fresh and alive and gay and young, June is a love song sweetly sung.” My GOD, there are peonies and irises (4 colors) and wild roses and wild daisies and lupines (purple) and dianthus… and the poppies, which a friend calls “the brazen hussies of the flower world.” And everything is green green green. We once had a party around the Summer Solstice that was dubbed the Solstice and Radish Festival (and something else I can remember).

    When I was teaching kindergarten in San Francisco area right after college, I drove my yellow VW home for one summer, and headed east on I-80 in June. Nevada, Utah, western Colorado were all pretty RED – their basic color. Red ground, red dirt – dry, hot, dusty red. Nebraska I hardly remember, but as I got close to the Neb-Iowa border, things started to green up. Rolling hills as we approached the Missouri River, instead of flat dull-colored expanse. All of a sudden it was lush green rolling hills, and I never looked at Iowa the same way again.

    I’d love to jump in the car (or a small RV – are you listening, god?) with no plan to speak of. Husband will jump in the car, but first you’ve got to plan how much time and $ it will take.

    what do you make certain to make time for and never miss? I try sometimes to slow enough to really listen to what’s around me, get out of my persona and think what is honest, what do I really thing and feel and want to say. This place sometimes helps me do that.

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  22. “A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.” – Lao Tzu
    “For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.” – Robert Louis Stevenson
    “One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.” – Henry Miller
    “Tourists don’t know where they’ve been, travelers don’t know where they’re going.” – Paul Theroux
    “Not all those who wander are lost.” – J. R. R. Tolkien

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  23. Rise and Sunday Shine Baboons:

    We have a wren in the back yard singing, singing, singing. I have not found the nest yet, but I know the happy couple did not make their nest in our wren house this year. It is a new, untested wren house this Spring. Last year they did nest in the house and an evil squirrel tore it up. We spoke of this as our own “little back yard disaster.” Lou built a new one, but it remains untested. Another kudo to June and its wonders. I did make Strawberry-Rhubarb jam last weekend. It turned out well. I’ve been testing it on my oatmeal this week.

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  24. OT: My daughter and family are flying to Myrtle Beach right now for a week, which is how I ended up doing the church services. 1) Thursday her son got an infection under his fingernail and they almost took it off. But they have been able to drain it this way after 3 times a day soaks plus cream. 2) Friday night their daughter got an ear infection (a genetic gift from my wife’s family). She was fine by last evening. 3) They were at a synod convention Friday and Saturday (skipping out today). She got a call yesterday afternoon that their bank card number had been stolen. It was all covered and they got it worked out with the company who were excellent. So she destroyed their cards. Then this morning driving to the airport she realized that she and her husband have separate numbers so his would still be active and they could use it be she destroyed it. But they can use their credit card. 4) Their flight from Atlanta to Myrtle Beach today has been delayed until later tonight.
    But they think it’s all funny. The Atlanta airport is not a decent one in which to wait for a few hours.

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