June

My favorite month, all sad now, for missing Miss Daisy. So much dog for such a tiny package..... this is utterly true about Dachshunds.... 

So yesterday was a day of reflection. We only had her for three years, but it certainly felt like more....Today, well, life goes on and Mack comes in for a lot of extra pets and playing,

However, such a month as June will not wait by the wayside while you get your feelings in order. The sun simply WILL come up around five and fling gold and orange and red banners all over the place. And it will set in blazing glory or a gentle waving of delicate clouds.

The birds will bring their babies in to learn the ropes of coexistence with this big artificial structure plopped right down in the middle of the wild. This morning I was awakened by the strident, shrill monotony of a baby Eastern Phoebe, like a two-year-old asking, "Are we there yet?" over and over and over.

Not my buddy from last night....his mother maybe

Last night I shared the porch with that young male Ruby-throated Hummingbird. He wanted to sit on the strings across the opening where the plants hang and tank up on sugar water.

Believe it or not you could see him getting fatter and fatter as he drank, until his belly hung like a pendulous grape. Every few minutes he came back for more and more and more. I finally went inside, even though I really wasn't ready, so he could get fueled up for his overnight torpor undisturbed by my movements. 

It is also the season of stepping outside the door to pick dinner. At this point only herbs are ready, but what flavors! Garlic scapes, Orange Mint, Parsley, Thyme, Lovage, and fresh Egyptian Onion tops all wait for the scissors. We had stir fried beef with green beans from last year's garden last night....with all those good tastes and scents mixed in. It was nice. And if the woodchucks are willing, in a few weeks there will be fresh beans.....

In the depths of winter when we are eating out of the freezer and freezing ourselves in the gloom, it is hard to believe in June, or even remember what it offers. However, now we must seize the summer, grab the glamour, live life for all it's worth.....June is here in all its glory and it isn't going to wait for us.