Beautiful June

BEAUTIFUL JUNE

I woke this morning to a chorus of birdsong on the Mountain and the realization that this will be my last June wrapped in the shadows and solitude of the Pisgah National Forest gently nudged at my heart. There is no sorrow in a timely farewell, methinks. Only joy and eagerness, curiosity and yearning. I am ready for this new beginning. 

When I arrived at the Cottage I was greeted with another, slightly different chorus of birdsong. Robins, Wood Thrush, and Mockingbirds abound here. I can hear the Carolina Wrens but have yet to see one. As I set the soak hose in the pumpkin patch garden to running, a pair of Red Shouldered Hawks (Buteo lineatus) added their hunting calls to the music. I watched them circle over head in an ever moving air dance, and thought of an old favorite poem, Gerard Manley Hopkins' "The Windhover." This is an especially delightful read or read-aloud, if you are so inclined. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44402/the-windhover

The pumpkin plants are enthusiastic growers, and blossoms have appeared on them and on the cantaloupe plants as well. The corn and sunflowers are tall and strong, and the butternut squash and watermelons are working to catch up to everything else. Even the volunteer squash of unknown variety that is growing in the rock garden is blooming, and this morning I was surprised to find a single morning glory bloom among the hostas and daylilies.

I am enamored with the beauty and magics of all that is Bear Path Cottage.

Here is my own tribute to this glorious month, written June 1, 2016.

Beautiful June

You roll in here so damned sweetly,
Tempting me with your sunny ways,
Summer promises wrapped up neatly,
Conjuring up those dreamy days
Until I laugh and call, Peace,
I will join you!
Does your lure never cease?
You’ve called to me since ere I knew
That school and work would come too soon.
Dreams and hopes grow within you,
Beautiful, dreamy, blessed June!

Peace out, peeps.

~s

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