June

Quotations for Gardeners, Walkers, and Lovers of the Green Way
Poems, Quotes, Folklore, Myths, Customs, Holidays, Traditions
Celebrations, Sayings, Poetry, Quips, References, Links
Ideas, Gardening Chores  

Compiled by Michael P. Garofalo
Valley Spirit Center, Red Bluff, California

Quotes      Links      References      Garden Chores      Photos     Walking     Months     Springtime

Quotes

The Month of June
Poetry, Quotations, Sayings, Facts, Information, Quips, Aphorisms, Lore

"In June, as many as a dozen species may burst their buds on a single day. 
No man can heed all of these anniversaries; no man can ignore all of them."  
-   Aldo Leopold

"On this June day the buds in my garden are almost as enchanting as the open flowers. Things in bud
bring, in the heat of a June noontide, the recollection of the loveliest days of the year - those days of
May when all is suggested, nothing yet fulfilled."
-  Francis King

"I know well
that the June rains
just fall."
-   Onitsura 

"Wisteria woke me this morning,
And there was all June in the garden;
I felt them, early, warning
Lest I miss any part of the day.

Straight I walked to the trellis vine.
Wisteria touched a lifted nostril:
Feelings of beauty diffused, to entwine
My spirit with June's own aura."
-  Ann McGough, Summons

"I'm glad I am alive, to see and feel
The full deliciousness of this bright day,
That's like a heart with nothing to conceal;
The young leaves scarcely trembling; the blue-grey
Rimming the cloudless ether far away;
Brairds, hedges, shadows; mountains that reveal
Soft sapphire; this great floor of polished steel
Spread out amidst the landmarks of the bay.

I stoop in sunshine to our circling net
From the black gunwale; tend these milky kine
Up their rough path; sit by yon cottage-door
Plying the diligent thread; take wings and soar--
O hark how with the season's laureate
Joy culminates in song! If such a song were mine!"
-   William Allingham, On a Forenoon of Spring

"So sweet, so sweet the roses in their blowing,
So sweet the daffodils, so fair to see;
So blithe and gay the humming-bird a going
From flower to flower, a-hunting with the bee."
-   Nora Perry, In June
 

"Peacefully
 The quiet stars came out, one after one;
The holy twilight fell upon the sea,
The summer day was done."
-  Celia Thaxter 

"Last day of Spring,
ripe purple plums drop--
form is emptiness.

First day of Summer,
ditch completely dry--
emptiness is form."
- Mike Garofalo, Above the Fog  

On the Summer Solstice, around June 21st, in Sacramento, California, Northern Hemisphere, Earth, we have around
15 Hours of Daylight and 9 Hours of Nighttime.  "On June 21, Sacramento, California''s sunrise is at 5:42 a.m. and its
sunset is at 8:33 p.m. The maximums are each one minute off of the solstice times.  The earliest sunrise in Sacramento
is 5:41 a.m. which lasts from June 7-20 and the latest sunset is at 8:34 p.m. from June 25-July 1."

"In winter I get up at night
And dress by yellow candle-light.
In summer quite the other way,
I have to go to bed by day.

I have to go to bed and see
The birds still hopping on the tree,
Or hear the grown-up people's feet
Still going past me in the street.

And does it not seem hard to you,
When all the sky is clear and blue,
And I should like so much to play,
To have to go to bed by day?"
-   Robert Louis Stevenson, Bed in Summer 

"Long about knee-deep in June,
'Bout the time strewberries melts
On the vine."
-   James Witcomb Riley

"A something in a summer's Day
As slow her flambeaux burn away
Which solemnizes me.

A something in a summer's noon --
A depth -- an Azure -- a perfume --
Transcending ecstasy.

And still within a summer's night
A something so transporting bright
I clap my hands to see --

Then veil my too inspecting face
Lets such a subtle -- shimmering grace
Flutter too far for me --

The wizard fingers never rest --
The purple brook within the breast
Still chafes it narrow bed --

Still rears the East her amber Flag --
Guides still the sun along the Crag
His Caravan of Red --

So looking on -- the night -- the morn
Conclude the wonder gay --
And I meet, coming thro' the dews
Another summer's Day!"
-  Emily Dickinson, A Something in a Summer's Day

"It's almost here - It's safe to say
I saw a Crocus yesterday
Its' colors bright - A lovely thing
My heart Rejoiced! 'Twil soon be Spring!

The winter blues will soon be gone
And birds will soon burst forth in song
The coral bells will gently ring
The Daphne yells "It's almost Spring!"

It's neary here! It's coming fast!
The Robins will appear at last
Oh Wonderous Joy! I too shall sing!
And join in Nature's "Song for Spring""
-   M. Garren, A Song for Spring 

"Great is the sun, and wide he goes
Through empty heaven with repose;
And in the blue and glowing days
More thick than rain he showers his rays.

Though closer still the blinds we pull
To keep the shady parlour cool,
Yet he will find a chink or two
To slip his golden fingers through.

The dusty attic spider-clad
He, through the keyhole, maketh glad;
And through the broken edge of tiles
Into the laddered hay-loft smiles.

Meantime his golden face around
He bares to all the garden ground,
And sheds a warm and glittering look
Among the ivy's inmost nook.

Above the hills, along the blue,
Round the bright air with footing true,
To please the child, to paint the rose,
The gardener of the World, he goes."
-   Robert Louis Stevenson, Summer Sun 

"Lathhouse shade –
the scent of honeysuckle
filling the shadows."
-   Mike Garofalo, Cuttings

"It's beautiful the Summer month of June
When all of God's own wildflowers are in bloom
And sun shines brightly most part of the day
And butterflies o'er lush green meadows play.

Light hearted skylark songster of the wing
High o'er the quiet and lonely moorland sing
Above her nest cloaked by the tangled heath
Her charming song so exquisitely sweet.

So mellow the gentle breath of june day breeze
The birds rejoicing on the leafy trees
And dappled trout in pool bed of the stream
Bask in the sun their spotted skins agleam."
-   Francis Duggan, June

"Now spring has clad the grove in green,
And strew’d the lea wi’ flowers;
The furrow’d, waving corn is seen
Rejoice in fostering showers.
While ilka thing in nature join
Their sorrows to forego,
O why thus all alone are mine
The weary steps o’ woe!

That little floweret’s peaceful lot,
In yonder cliff that grows,
Which, save the linnet’s flight, I wot,
Nae ruder visit knows,
Was mine, till Love has o’er me past,
And blighted a’ my bloom;
And now, beneath the withering blast,
My youth and joy consume."
-   Robert Burns, Now Spring Has Clad the Grove in Green

"Liza, go steep your long white hands
In the cool waters of that spring
Which bubbles up through shiny sands
The colour of a wild-dove's wing.

Dabble your hands, and steep them well
Until those nails are pearly white
Now rosier than a laurel bell;
Then come to me at candlelight.

Lay your cold hands across my brows,
And I shall sleep, and I shall dream
Of silver-pointed willow boughs
Dipping their fingers in a stream."
-   Elinor Wylie, Spring Pastoral

“It is better to be a young June-bug than an old bird of paradise”
-   Mark Twain

"I wonder what it would be like to live in a world where it was always June."
-   L. M. Montgomery

"Now summer is in flower and natures hum 
Is never silent round her sultry bloom 
Insects as small as dust are never done 
Wi' glittering dance and reeling in the sun 
And green wood fly and blossom haunting bee 
Are never weary of their melody 
Round field hedge now flowers in full glory twine 
Large bindweed bells wild hop and streakd woodbine 
That lift athirst their slender throated flowers 
Agape for dew falls and for honey showers 
These round each bush in sweet disorder run 
And spread their wild hues to the sultry sun."
-   John Clare, June

"In these divine pleasures permitted to me of walks in the June night under moon and stars,
I can put my life as a fact before me and stand aloof from its honor and shame."
-  Ralph Waldo Emerson, Journals  

"No price is set on the lavish summer;
 June may be had by the poorest comer."
-   James Russell Lowell, The Vision of Sir Launfal

"O Day after day we can't help growing older.
Year after year spring can't help seeming younger.
Come let's enjoy our winecup today,
Nor pity the flowers fallen."
-   Wang Wei, On Parting with Spring  

June
Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry
French Medieval Book of Hours, 1412

"In what house, the jade flute that sends these dark notes drifting,
scattering on the spring wind that fills Lo-yang?
Tonight if we should hear the willow-breaking song,
who could help but long for the gardens of home?"
-   Li Po, Spring Night in Lo-Yang Hearing a Flute

"If a June night could talk,
it would probably boast it invented romance."
-  Bern Williams 

"Mine is the Month of Roses; yes, and mine
The Month of Marriages! All pleasant sights
And scents, the fragrance of the blossoming vine,
The foliage of the valleys and the heights.
Mine are the longest days, the loveliest nights;
The mower's scythe makes music to my ear;
I am the mother of all dear delights;
I am the fairest daughter of the year."
-   Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

"The end of spring--
the poet is brooding
about editors."
-  Yosa Buson

"Kind hearts are the gardens;
kind thoughts are the roots;
kind words are the flowers;
kind deeds are the fruits."
-   English Proverb

"Welcome, gentle Stripling,
Nature's darling thou!
With thy basket full of blossoms,
A happy welcome now!
Aha!--and thou returnest,
Heartily we greet thee--
The loving and the fair one,
Merrily we meet thee!
Think'st thou of my maiden
In thy heart of glee?

I love her yet, the maiden--
And the maiden yet loves me!
For the maiden, many a blossom
I begged--and not in vain!
I came again a-begging,
And thou--thou givest again:
Welcome, gentle Stripling,
Nature's darling thou--
With thy basket full of blossoms,
A happy welcome now!"
-   Friedrich von Schiller, To the Spring 

"Who comes with Summer to this earth
And owes to June her day of birth,
With ring of Agate on her hand,
Can health, wealth, and long life command."
-  June

'Sap which mounts, and flowers which thrust,
Your childhood is a bower:
Let my fingers wander in the moss
Where glows the rosebud

Let me among the clean grasses
Drink the drops of dew
Which sprinkle the tender flower ..."
- Paul Verlaine, Spring

"The year is ended, and it only adds to my age;
Spring has come, but I must take leave of my home.
Alas, that the trees in this easter garden,
Without me, will still bear flowers."
-   Su Ting, circa 700 CE

Spring - Quotes for Gardeners

"The air is like a butterfly
With frail blue wings.
The happy earth looks at the sky
And sings."
-   Joyce Kilmer, Spring

"I used to visit and revisit it a dozen times a day, and stand in deep contemplation over  my vegetable
progeny with a love that nobody could share or conceive of who had never taken part in the process of
creation.  It was one of the most bewitching sights in the world to observe a hill of beans thrusting aside 
the soil, or a rose of early peas just peeping forth sufficiently to trace a line of delicate green.
-   Nathaniel Hawthorne, Mosses from an Old Manse

Cuttings - June - Short Poems by Mike Garofalo

"This is June, the month of grass and leaves . . . already the aspens are trembling again, and a new summer is offered me.  I feel a little fluttered in my thoughts, as if I might be too late.  Each season is but an infinitesimal point.  It no sooner comes than it is gone.  It has no duration.  It simply gives a tone and hue to my thought.  Each annual phenomena is reminiscence and prompting.  Our thoughts and sentiments answer to the revolution of the seasons, as two cog-wheels fit into each other.  We are conversant with only one point of contact at a time, from which we receive a prompting and impulse and instantly pass to a new season or point of contact.  A year is made up of a certain series and number of sensations and thoughts which have their language in nature.  Now I am ice, now I am sorrel.  Each experience reduces itself to a mood of the mind."
- Henry David Thoreau, Journal, June 6, 1857

"Oh that it were with me
As with the flower;
Blooming on its own tree
For butterfly and bee
Its summer morns:
That I might bloom minehour
A rose in spite of thorns.

Oh that my work were done
As birds' that soar
Rejoicing in the sun:
That when my time is run
And daylight too,
I so might rest once more
Cool with refreshing dew."
-  Christina Rosetti, A Summer Wish, 1880

"Everything in nature is lyrical in its ideal essence, tragic in its fate, and comic in its existence."
-   George Santayana

"Coming, here, gone:
Flowers in the Sky.                                                        
In the blink of one false eye,
In the blink of One True Eye,             
flowers in the empty sky;
Shimmering, scented ... gone,
Gone, gone, gone far beyond              
Their seeds of arising.
But, staying, Here-Now,
A Great Marvel of Manifestation.         
Bodhisvattas - for the bees." 
-   Mike Garofalo, Cuttings

“In June as many as a dozen species may burst their buds on a single day.
No man can heed all of these anniversaries; no man can ignore all of them.”
-   Aldo Leopold 

"When June comes dancing o'er the death of May,
With scarlet roses tinting her green breast,
And mating thrushes ushering in her day,
And Earth on tiptoe for her golden guest,

I always see the evening when we met--
The first of June baptized in tender rain--
And walked home through the wide streets, gleaming wet,
Arms locked, our warm flesh pulsing with love's pain.

I always see the cheerful little room,
And in the corner, fresh and white, the bed,
Sweet scented with a delicate perfume,
Wherein for one night only we were wed;

Where in the starlit stillness we lay mute,
And heard the whispering showers all night long,
And your brown burning body was a lute
Whereon my passion played his fevered song."
-   Claude Mckay, A Memory of June

"Two Seasons, it is said, exist—
The Summer of the Just,
And this of Ours, diversified
With Prospect, and with Frost—

May not our Second with its First
So infinite compare
That We but recollect the one
The other to prefer?"
-  Emily Dickinson, There is a June When Corn is Cut

"Roses are red,
Violets are blue;
But they don't get around
Like the dandelions do."
-   Slim Acres 

"What is one to say about June, the time of perfect young summer, the fulfillment of the
promise of the earlier months, and with as yet no sign to remind one that its fresh
young beauty will ever fade."
-  Gertrude Jekyll,  On Gardening

“How did it get so late so soon?
Its night before its afternoon.
December is here before its June.
My goodness how the time has flewn.
How did it get so late so soon?”
-  Dr. Seuss

"I gazed upon the glorious sky
And the green mountains round,
And thought that when I came to lie
At rest within the ground,
'Twere pleasant, that in flowery June
When brooks send up a cheerful tune,
And groves a joyous sound,
The sexton's hand, my grave to make,
The rich, green mountain-turf should break."
-   William Cullen Bryant, June

Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright;
The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light,
And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout;
But there is no joy in Mudville-- mighty Casey has struck out."
-   Ernest Thayer, Casey at the Bat, 1888   

"Nothing is so beautiful as spring—
When weeds, in wheels, shoot long and lovely and lush;
Thrush's eggs look little low heavens, and thrush
Through the echoing timber does so rinse and wring
The ear, it strikes like lightnings to hear him sing;
The glassy peartree leaves and blooms, they brush
The descending blue; that blue is all in a rush
With richness; the racing lambs too have fair their fling.
What is all this juice and all this joy?
A strain of the earth's sweet being in the beginning
In Eden garden.—Have, get, before it cloy..."
-   Gerald Manly Hopkins, Spring

"The summer morn is bright and fresh,
the birds are darting by
As if they loved to breast the breeze
that sweeps the cool clear sky."
-   William C. Bryant

"No flowers, no bees;
No bees, no flowers.
Blooming and buzzing,
Buzzing and blooming;
Married and still in Love."
-   Mike Garofalo, Cuttings

"For summer there, bear in mind, is a loitering gossip, that only begins to talk of leaving
when September rises to go."
-   George Washington Cable

"Heed not the night;
A summer lodge amid the wild is mine,
'Tis shadowed by the tulip-tree,
'Tis mantled by the vine."
-   William C. Bryant

" Summer makes me drowsy.  Autumn makes me sing.  Winter's pretty lousy, but I hate Spring."
-   Dorothy Parker

“I sing of brooks, of blossoms, birds, and bowers:
Of April, May, of June, and July-flowers.
I sing of maypoles, hock-carts, wassails, wakes,
Of bridegrooms, brides, and of their bridal cakes.”
-   Robert Herrick

"I question not if thrushes sing,
If roses load the air;
Beyond my heart I need not reach
When all is summer there."
-   John Vance Cheney

"Spring being a tough act to follow,
God created June."
-   Al Bernstein 

"Some people plant in the spring and leave in the summer.  If you're signed up for a season,
see it through.  You don't have to stay forever, but at least stay until you see it through."
-   Jim Rohn

"Summer has two Beginnings --
Beginning once in June --
Beginning in October
Affectingly again --

Without, perhaps, the Riot
But graphicker for Grace --
As finer is a going
Than a remaining Face --

Departing then -- forever --
Forever -- until May --
Forever is deciduous
Except to those who die --"
-   Emily Dickinson, Summer Has Two Beginnings

“To read a poem in January is as lovely as to go for a walk in June”
-   Jean Paul Sartre

"People don't notice whether it's winter or summer when they're happy."
-   Anton Chekhov

"Summer makes a silence after spring."
-   Vita Sackville-West

"I have a total irreverence for anything connected with society except that which makes
the roads safer, the beer stronger, the food cheaper and the old men and old women
warmer in the winter and happier in the summer."
-   Brendan Behan

"Tell you what I like the best --
'Long about knee-deep in June,
'Bout the time strawberries melts
On the vine, -- some afternoon
Like to jes' git out and rest,
And not work at nothin' else!"
-   James Witcomb Riley, Knee Deep in June

"In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt." 
-   Margaret Atwood 

"In small proportions we just beauties see,
And in short measures life may perfect be."
-   Ben Jonson

"It is dry, hazy June weather.  We are more of the earth, farther from heaven these days."
-   Henry David Thoreau

"It is the month of June,
The month of leaves and roses,
When pleasant sights salute the eyes
And pleasant scents the noses."
-   Nathaniel Parker Willis, The Month of June

"Summer is a promissory note signed in June, its long days spent and gone before you know it,
and due to be repaid next January."
-   Hal Borland

"I am coming, I am coming!
Hark! the honey bee is humming;
See, the lark is soaring high
In the blue and sunny sky,
And the gnats are on the wing
Wheeling round in airy ring.

Listen! New-born lambs are bleating,
And the cawing rooks are meeting
In the elms--a noisy crowd.
All the birds are singing loud,
And the first white butterfly
In the sunshine dances by.

Look around you, look around!
Flowers in all the fields abound,
Every running stream is bright,
All the orchard trees are white,
And each small and waving shoot
Promises sweet autumn fruit."
-   Mary Howitt, The Voice of Spring

“There are moments, above all on June evenings, when the lakes that hold our moons are
sucked into the earth, and nothing is left but wine and the touch of a hand.”
-   Charles Morgan

"For stately trees in rich array,
For sunlight all the happy day,
For blossoms radiant and rare,
For skies when daylight closes,
For joyous, clear, outpouring song
From birds that all the green wood throng,
For all things young, and bright, and fair,
We praise thee, Month of Roses!

For blue, blue skies of summer calm,
For fragrant odors breathing balm,
For quiet, cooling shades where oft
The weary head reposes,
For brooklets babbling thro' the fields
Where Earth her choicest treasures yields,
For all things tender, sweet and soft,
We love thee, Month of Roses!"
-  Elaine Goodale. June

"It amazes me that most people spend more time planning next summer's vacation than
they do planning the rest of their lives."
-   Patricia Fripp

"Strawberries that in gardens grow
   Are plump and juicy fine,
But sweeter far as wise men know
   Spring from the woodland vine.

No need for bowl or silver spoon,
   Sugar or spice or cream,
Has the wild berry plucked in June
   Beside the trickling stream.

One such to melt at the tongue's root,
   Confounding taste with scent,
Beats a full peck of garden fruit:
   Which points my argument."
-   Robert Graves, Wild Strawberries

"It's not the winter that bothers me - it's the summers."
-   Walt Alston

"I used to imagine him
coming from the house, like Merlin
strolling with important gestures
through the garden
where everything grows so thickly,
where birds sing, little snakes lie
on the boughs, thinking of nothing
but their own good lives,
where petals float upward,
their colors exploding,
and trees open their moist
pages of thunder --
it has happened every summer for years.

But now I know more
about the great wheel of growth,
and decay, and rebirth,
and know my vision for a falsehood.
Now I see him coming from the house --
I see him on his knees,
cutting away the diseased, the superfluous,
coaxing the new,
knowing that the hour of fulfillment
is buried in years of patience --
yet willing to labor like that
on the mortal wheel."
- Mary Oliver, Stanley Kunitz (1905-2006) 

"I pray that the life of this spring and summer may ever lie fair in my memory."
-   Henry David Thoreau

"No price is set on the lavish summer;
June may be had by the poorest comer."
-   James Russell Lowel

"The tendinous part of the mind, so to speak, is more developed in winter; the fleshy,
in summer. I should say winter had given the bone and sinew to literature, summer
the tissues and the blood."
-   John Burroughs

"After her came jolly June, arrayed
All in green leaves, as he a player were;
Yet in his time he wrought as well as played,
That by his plough-irons mote right well appear.
Upon a crab he rode, that did him bear,
With crooked crawling steps, an uncouth pace,
And backward rode, as bargemen wont to fare,
Bending their force contrary to their face;
Like that ungracious crew which feigns demurest grace."
-   Edmund Spenser

"The fountain murmuring of sleep,
A drowsy tune;
The flickering green of leaves that keep
The light of June;
Peace, through a slumbering afternoon,
The peace of June.

A waiting ghost, in the blue sky,
The white curved moon;
June, hushed and breathless, waits, and I
Wait too, with June;
Come, through the lingering afternoon,
Soon, love, come soon."
-   Arthur Symons, In Fountain Court

"Do you recall that night in June
Upon the Danube River;
We listened to the landler-tune,
We watched the moonbeams quiver."
-   Charles Hamilton Aide, Danube River

"June is bustin' out all over."
- Oscar Hammerstein II, 1945

"See what delights in sylvan scenes appear!
Descending Gods have found Elysium here.
In woods bright Venus with Adonis stray'd,
And chaste Diana haunts the forest shade.
Come lovely nymph, and bless the silent hours,
When swains from shearing seek their nightly bow'rs;
When weary reapers quit the sultry field,
And crown'd with corn, their thanks to Ceres yield.
This harmless grove no lurking viper hides,
But in my breast the serpent Love abides.
Here bees from blossoms sip the rosy dew,
But your Alexis knows no sweets but you.
Oh deign to visit our forsaken seats,
The mossy fountains, and the green retreats!
Where-e'er you walk, cool gales shall fan the glade,
Trees, where you sit, shall crowd into a shade,
Where-e'er you tread, the blushing flow'rs shall rise,
And all things flourish where you turn your eyes."
-   Alexander Pope, Summer

"This is for June, and all the summers it brings
For the chiming of the church bells... that sing
In songs of matrimony o'er top hats and lace
'Fore June passes torch, to July's scarlet face

And the trees in full jacket, leaves forest green
The last pink of magnolia, can still yet be seen
There's a breeze in the air, that carries a scent
Sweet rose and honeysuckle, in efflorescence

Nights still cast a chill, but June has its motives
An evening gift for all those amorously devoted
To feel the magic of love whilst under the moon
Makes one thankful, there be the month of June."
Frank James Ryan, June  

"In a bowl to sea went wise men three,
On a brilliant night of June:
They carried a net, and their hearts were set
On fishing up the moon."
-   Thomas Love Peacock

"Nothing is as easy to make as a promise this winter to do something next summer; this is how
commencement speakers are caught. "
-   Sydney J. Harris 

"The year's at the spring,
And day's at the morn;
Morning's at seven;
The hill-side's dew-pearled;
The lark's on the wing;
The snail's on the thorn;
God's in his Heaven—
All's right with the world!"
-   Robert Browning, The Year's at the Spring

"If you're going to San Francisco
Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair
If you're going to San Francisco
You're gonna meet some gentle people there

For those who come to San Francisco
Summertime will be a love-in there
In the streets of San Francisco
Gentle people with flowers in their hair

All across the nation such a strange vibration
People in motion
There's a whole generation with a new explanation
People in motion people in motion

For those who come to San Francisco
Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair
If you come to San Francisco
Summertime will be a love-in there"
-   Scott McKenzie, San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Some Flowers in Your Hair)

"Long drawn, the cool, green shadows
Steal o'er the lake's warm breast,
And the ancient silence follows
The burning sun to rest.

The calm of a thousand summers,
And dreams of countless Junes,
Return when the lake-wind murmurs
Through golden August noons."
-   William Stanley Braithwaite, By an Inland Lake 

“And let them pass, as they will too soon,
With the bean-flowers' boon,
And the blackbird's tune,
And May, and June!”
-   Robert Browning

"Nothing is more memorable than a smell. One scent can be unexpected, momentary and fleeting,
yet conjure up a childhood summer beside a lake in the mountains..."
-  Diane Ackerman 

"When one subtracts from life infancy (which is vegetation), sleep, eating and swilling,
buttoning and unbuttoning - how much remains of downright existence? The summer of a dormouse."
-   Lord Byron

"The hum of bees is the voice of the garden." 
-   Elizabeth Lawrence

"There once was a mother
who had four children:
spring, summer,
fall, and winter.

Spring brings us flowers,
summer brings clover,
fall brings grapes,
winter brings snow."
-  German Folksong

"We are talking now of summer evenings in Knoxville, Tennessee, in the time that I lived there so
successfully disguised to myself as a child."
-   James Agee

"Love is to the heart what the summer is to the farmer's year.  It brings to harvest all the
loveliest flowers of the soul."
-   Billy Graham

"A summer's sun is worth the having."
-   French Proverb

"It always seemed to me that the herbaceous peony is the very epitome of June.  Larger than any rose,
it has something of the cabbage rose's voluminous quality; and when it finally drops from the vase, it
sheds its petticoats with a bump on the table, all in an intact heap, much as a rose will suddenly fall,
making us look up from our book or conversation, to notice for one moment the death of what had
still appeared to be a living beauty."
-   Vita Sackville-West

"June falls asleep upon her bier of flowers;
In vain are dewdrops sprinkled o'er her,
In vain would fond winds fan her back to life,
Her hours are numbered on the floral dial."
-   Lucy Larcom, Death of June

"The flowers are nature's jewels, with whose wealth she decks her summer beauty."
-    George Croly

"He was hidden in the nascent
emerging buds of the
lilac branches, singing his
ornate, urgent, compelling song
to the back of the hall
to the ladies, to the heavens
letting the world hear his
beautiful, erudite trill
shared in joy,
piercing the momentary gloom
of the gentle spring rain."
-   Raymond A. Foss, A Spring Rain Song

"Spring passes and one remembers one's innocence. Summer passes and one remembers one's exuberance.
Autumn passes and one remembers one's reverence. Winter passes and one remembers one's perseverance."
-   Yoko Ono

"As soon seek roses in December—ice in June. 
Hope constancy in wind, or corn in chaff."
-   Lord Byron

“Ask me no more where Jove bestows,
When June is past, the fading rose;
For in your beauty's orient deep
These flowers, as in their causes, sleep.”
-   Thomas Carew

"Happy fields of summer, all your airy grasses
Whispering and bowing when the west wind passes, --
Happy lark and nestling, hid beneath the mowing,
Root sweet music in you, to the white clouds growing!

Happy fields of summer, softly billowed over
With the feathery red-top and the rosy clover, --
Happy little children seek your shady places,
Lark-songs in their bosoms, sunshine on their faces!

Happy little children, skies are bright above you,
Trees bend down to kiss you, breeze and blossom love you;
And we bless you, playing in the field-paths mazy,
Swinging with the harebell, dancing with the daisy!

Happy fields of summer, touched with deeper beauty
As your tall grain ripens, -- tell the children, duty
Is as sweet as pleasure; tell them both are blended
In the best life story, well begun and ended."
-   Lucy Larcom, Happy Fields of Summer

“How sad it is!  I shall grow old, and horrid, and dreadful.  But this picture will remain always young.
It will never be older than this particular day of June. . . . If it was only the other way!  If it was I who
were to be always young, and the picture that were to grow old!  For this--for this--I would give
everything! Yes, there is nothing in the whole world I would not give!”
-   Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

Seeing and Gardening

"Then followed that beautiful season... Summer....
Filled was the air with a dreamy and magical light; and the landscape
Lay as if new created in all the freshness of childhood."
-   Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

"June is the month of dreams, I think;
Gardeners watch their roses, pink.
Birds leave the nest and try their wings
And songbirds learn just how to sing.
Brides have planned for the perfect day
When to their love their vows will say.
June is a month of graduations;
Proud parents give congratulations.
The birth of baby girls and boys
Makes us look at tiny toys.
First communions are realized;
Decisions taken to change lives.
Recitals seem to be everywhere;
Dancing and music is in the air.
June is the month to sing your joy -
the month of dreams for you to enjoy."
-   Joan Adams Burchell

"Good weather all the week, but come the weekend the weather stinks. 
Springtime for birth, Summertime for growth; and all Seasons for dying.
Ripening grapes in the summer sun - reason enough to plod ahead. 
Springtime flows in our veins.  
Beauty is the Mistress, the gardener Her salve. 
A soul is colored Spring green.  
Complexity is closer to the truth. 
When the Divine knocks, don't send a prophet to the door. 
All metaphors aside - only living beings rise up in the Springtime; dead beings stay quite lie down dead. 
Winter does not turn into Summer; ash does not turn into firewood - on the chopping block of time. 
Fresh fruit from the tree - sweet summertime! 
Gardens are demanding pets. 
Shade was the first shelter. 
One spring and one summer to know life's hope; one autumn and one winter to know life's fate. 
Somehow, someway, everything gets eaten up, someday. 
Relax and be still around the bees. 
Paradise and shade are close relatives on a summer day. 
Absolutes squirm beneath realities. 
The spiders, grasshoppers, mantis, and moth larva are all back:  the summer crowd has returned!
To garden is to open your heart to the sky.
Dirty fingernails and a calloused palm precede a Green Thumb." 
-   Michael P. Garofalo, Pulling Onions

"spring omnipotent goddess Thou
dost stuff parks
with overgrown pimply
chevaliers and gumchewing giggly

damosels Thou dost
persuade to serenade
his lady the musical tom-cat
Thou dost inveigle

into crossing sidewalks the
unwary june-bug and the frivolous
angleworm
Thou dost hang canary birds in parlour windows

Spring slattern of seasons
you have soggy legs
and a muddy petticoat
drowsy

is your hair your
eyes are sticky with
dream and you have a sloppy body from

being brought to bed of crocuses
when you sing in your whisky voice
the grass rises on the head of the earth
and all the trees are put on edge

spring
of the excellent jostle of
thy hips
and the superior"
-   E. E. Cummings, Spring Omnipotent Goddess Thou

Nimble fingers picking
fistfuls of cherries –
spitting pits.  
-   Mike Garofalo, Cuttings

"Just living is not enough" said the butterfly,
"one must have sunshine, freedom and a little flower."
-  Hans Christian Andersen

"Spring has many American faces.  There are cities where it will come and go in a day and counties
where it hangs around and never quite gets there.  Summer is drawn blinds in Louisiana, long winds
in Wyoming, shade of elms and maples in New England."
-   Archibald MacLeish 

"What I get, I bring home to you:
a dark handful, sweet-edged,
dissolving in one mouthful.

I bother to bring them for you
though they’re so quickly over,
pulpless, sliding to juice

a grainy rub on the tongue
and the taste’s gone. If you remember
we were in the woods at wild strawberry-time

and I was making a basket of dock-leaves
to hold what you’d picked,
but the cold leaves unplaited themselves

and slid apart, and again unplaited themselves
until I gave up and ate wild strawberries
out of your hands for sweetness."
-   Helen Dunmore, Wild Strawberries

"O months of blossoming, months of transfigurations,
May without cloud and June stabbed to the heart,
I shall not ever forget the lilacs or the roses
Nor those the spring has kept folded away apart."
-   Louis Aragon

"The month of June is probably named after Juno, the wife of Jupiter, and queen of the gods [Hera in Greek mythology]. It was held sacred to her, and was thought by the Romans to be the luckiest month for marriage, since Juno was the Goddess of Marriage. Wherever the goddess went she was attended by her messenger Iris (the Rainbow), who journeyed so quickly through the air that she was seldom seen, but after she had passed there was often left in the sky the radiant trail of her highly-coloured robe.  Juno is always represented as a tall, beautiful woman, wearing a crown and bearing a sceptre in her hand, and often she is shown with a peacock at her side, since that bird was sacred to her.  A story is told of one of her servants, Argus, who had a hundred eyes, only a few of which he closed at a time. Juno set him to watch over a cow which Jupiter wished to steal, for it was really a beautiful girl named Io, whom Jupiter had transformed. Mercury was sent by Jupiter to carry off Io, and by telling long and wearisome stories to Argus at last succeeded in lulling him into so deep a sleep that he closed all his eyes. The god then seized Argus's own sword and cut off his head.  Juno was very sad at the loss of her servant, and gathering up his hundred eyes scattered them over the tail of the peacock, her favourite bird."  
[Compare with Sarasvati, Hindu River Goddess, Patron of the Arts and Sciences, with a Peacock or Swan as her totem.] 
-   Stories of the Months and Days  

"Juno was the Roman Mother Goddess, known to the Greeks as Hera, and her original name to the Romans was Junonius. Juno is a counterpart of Janus and the divine watcher over the female sex, so this month is considered the best time to marry. As Juno Moneta, guardian of wealth and money, she had a temple on the Capitoline hill in Rome where the empire’s coins were minted. Among Juno’s attributes, she is queen of heaven, approximating Frigg in the Northern Tradition, and Mary in the Christian. She is ruler of the high point of year, when there is maximum light and minimum darkness (the northern Summer Solstice).  Today, the Matronalia, was sacred to the goddess in her aspect known as Juno Lucina, protectress of women and marriage, a later representation of Eileithyia, Greek goddess of childbirth. Matronalia was celebrated at the temple called the Aedes Junonis Lucinae which was built in 375 BCE in a grove that had been consecrated to the goddess from very early times. Livy records that the grove (lucus) on the Esquiline Hill is the origin of the goddess's name. We know from Ovid’s Fasti  (iii.247) that the Matronalia was commemorated annually on this day, the day of the temple’s consecration.  Women and girls prayed to her and brought offerings where the goddess was represented veiled, with a flower in her right hand, and an infant in swaddling clothes in her left. Prayers for prosperity in marriage were offered.  By the second century BCE, this aspect of Juno was associated with childbirth because the name lucina was thought to have come from the Latin word lux (light); thus, when a child was born it was said to have been “brought to light”. In this aspect the goddess was a lunar deity, often paired with Diana and depicted as holding a torch. In the worship of Juno Lucina, women had to untie knots and unplait their hair – sympathetic magic to prevent entanglements in the delivery of babies. In Roman homes, prayers were offered for prosperity in marriage, and women waited on the slaves, just as the men did at the Saturnalia."
-  Matronalia 

"Let us sing now of Hera, the women's goddess.
she who rules from her throne of gold.
Let us sing now of Hera, child of earth,
daughter of that most ancient of goddesses.
Let us sing now of the queen of gods.
Let us sing now of the most beautiful goddess.
There is no one more beloved than you,
womanly Hera, no one we honor more.
There is no one more revered than you,
queenly Hera, no one more blessed.
Above all others, you are the most honored.
Above all others, you are the most beloved."
-   Homer, Hymn to Hera
 

"June 1st.  The Roman festival of Juno Moneta, the "Warner." In this aspect she warned people of danger, and women of bad marriages. Her temple contained the original mint, so Moneta became the source of the word “money.”
    June 9 Vestalia.  In ancient Rome, this was the day set aside for a public festival for the hearth goddess Vesta. Women walked barefoot around her round temple with offerings. The Vestal Virgins prepared the ritual food: mola salsa, a cake of salt and the first grain. The water came from vessels that could not be set down without spilling and the salt was pounded in a mortar, baked and sawn. It became a holiday for millers and bakers.
    June 11 Matralia/Fortuna.  Roman women celebrated Mater Matuta, the goddess of dawn on this day. They asked for her blessings on their children or their sister's children. As part of the ritual, the women drove from the temple a slavewoman who represented night, thus symbolically enacting the arrival of Dawn. The temple of Mater Matuta was alongside one of Fortuna who was also worshipped on this day.
    June 24 Lady Luck/Fortuna.  The Romans celebrated the goddess of good fortune on this day. Monaghan comments that she was not merely "luck," but the principle that drives men and women to mate, an irresistible "Fors." She was the goddess of fertilization of humans, animals and plants, and thus was especially worshipped by women wanting to become pregnant and by gardeners. As Fortuna Virilis, she made women irresistible to men. It was perhaps on this day that Roman women invaded men's public baths. It makes sense to celebrate Fortuna at this time of the year when the sun at its height represents the top of her wheel of Fortune. The wheel becomes a symbol again at the other side of the year (winter solstice) when the sun is at its lowest point."
-  Waverly Fitzgerald, June: School of the Seasons

"Vesta was the Roman Goddess of the hearth and home (Hestia was her Greek counterpart). Her six Vestal Virgins (virgin in the sense that they belonged to no man - they were "one within") tended her sacred fire in a round temple in Rome and the Romans offered a prayer to her every day at their own hearths. On March 1st, every year, her priestesses extinguished the fire and relit it. Her worship was connected with fertility and to let her light go out would mean that civilization would also end.  On June 9th, the Vestalia was held when her priestesses baked salt cakes and sacrificed them on Vesta's fire for 8 days, after which the temple was closed, cleaned out and then reopened the next day.  She holds an oil lamp from 1st century Pompeii and wears a Roman earring from the 3rd-4th centuries. The statues of Senior Vestal Virgins in the background are from the House of the Vestal Virgins in the Roman Forum (heads and hands restored ). On the wall is a Roman frieze from the College of Vestal Virgins."
-   Samovila Yemaya
[Summer, Fire, Heat, Sexual Productivity, Fertility, Flame, Hearth]

"Of all the wonders of nature, a tree in summer is perhaps the most remarkable; with the possible
exception of a moose singing "Embraceable You" in spats."
-   Woody Allen

"Here the white-ray'd anemone is born,
Wood-sorrel, and the varnish'd buttercup;
And primrose in its purfled green swathed up,
Pallid and sweet round every budding thorn,
Gray ash, and beech with rusty leaves outworn.
Here, too the darting linnet hath her nest
In the blue-lustred holly, never shorn,
Whose partner cheers her little brooding breast,
Piping from some near bough. O simple song!
O cistern deep of that harmonious rillet,
And these fair juicy stems that climb and throng
The vernal world, and unexhausted seas
Of flowing life, and soul that asks to fill it,
Each and all of these,--and more, and more than these!"
-   William Allingham, In a Spring Grove

"He was in love with life as an ant on a summer blade of grass."
-   Ben Hecht 

"June is the sixth month of the year in the Gregorian calendar, with a length of 30 days. The month is named after the Roman goddess Juno, wife of Jupiter and equivalent to the Greek goddess Hera. At the start of June, the sun rises in the constellation of Taurus; at the end of June, the sun rises in the constellation of Gemini.  However, due to the precession of the equinoxes, June begins with the sun in the astrological sign of Gemini, and ends with the sun in the astrological sign of Cancer. June is the month with the longest daylight hours of the year in the Northern Hemisphere and the shortest daylight hours of the year in the Southern Hemisphere.  The month of June—in the Northern Hemisphere—is in Spring until the 21st, when Summer begins. The traditional June birthstone is the pearl. The June birth flower is the rose, or the honeysuckle, as roses and honeysuckles bloom throughout June. June is also sometimes called the "Rose month."  June is known for the large amount of marriages that occur over the course of the month. This large quantity of marriages can be attributed to the Goddess that June is named after, Juno or Hera. Juno is the protecting goddess of marriage and a married couple's household, so it is considered good luck to be married in this month."
-   Wikipedia

"What joy have I in June's return?
My feet are parched--my eyeballs burn,
I scent no flowery gust;
But faint the flagging zephyr springs,
With dry Macadam on its wings,
And turns me 'dust to dust.' "
-   Thomas Hood, Town and Country

"A happy soul, that all the way
To heaven hath a summer's day."
-   Richard Crashaw

"Oh, my luve's like a red, red rose,
That's newly sprung in June;
Oh, my luve's like the melodie
That's sweetly played in tune”
-   Robert Burns

"'Warm in December, cold in June, you say?'
I don't suppose the water's changed at all.
You and I know enough to know it's warm
Compared with cold, and cold compared with warm.
But all the fun's in how you say a thing."
-   Robert Frost, The Mountain 

"June brings tulips, lilies, roses,
Fills the children's hands with posies."
-   Sara Coleridge

"Silence instead of thy sweet song, my bird,
Which through the darkness of my winter days
Warbling of summer sunshine still was heard;
Mute is thy song, and vacant is thy place.

The spring comes back again, the fields rejoice,
Carols of gladness ring from every tree;
But I shall hear thy wild triumphant voice
No more: my summer song has died with thee.

What didst thou sing of, O my summer bird?
The broad, bright, brimming river, whose swift sweep
And whirling eddies by the home are heard,
Rushing, resistless, to the calling deep.

What didst thou sing of, thou melodious sprite?
Pine forests, with smooth russet carpets spread,
Where e'en at noonday dimly falls the light,
Through gloomy blue-green branches overhead.

What didst thou sing of, O thou jubilant soul?
Ever-fresh flowers and never-leafless trees,
Bending great ivory cups to the control
Of the soft swaying, orange scented breeze."
-   Frances Anne Kemble, Lament of a Mocking Bird, 1882

"The question, "Which is the happiest season of life?" was asked of an aged man. And he replied: "When spring comes, and in the soft air the buds are breaking on the trees, and they are covered with blossoms, I think, 'How beautiful is spring'; and when summer comes and covers the trees with its heavy foliage, and singing birds are among the branches, I think, 'How beautiful is summer.' When autumn loads them with golden fruit, and their leaves bear the gorgeous tint of frost, I think, 'How beautiful is autumn.' And when it is severe winter, and there is neither foliage nor fruit, then I look up through the leafless branches as I never could until now, and see the stars shine in God's home."
-   Source Unknown

"Provide of thine own, to have all things at hand;
Less work and the workman, unoccupied, stand.
Make dry over-head both hovel and shack.
Wash sheep (for the better) where water doth run;
Let him go cleanly, and dry in the sun.
Thy houses and and barns would be looked upon;
And all things a[...]ed, ere harvest come on.
At midsummer, down with the brambles and brakes;
And after, abroad, with thy forks and thy rakes;
Set movers a mowing, where meadow is grown;
The longer now standing, the worse to be mown."
-   Thomas Tusser, 1750

"And what is so rare as a day in June?
Then, if ever, come perfect days;
Then Heaven tries earth if it be in tune,
And over it softly her warm ear lays:
Whether we look, or whether we listen,
We hear life murmur, or see it glisten."
-   James Russell Lowell, The Vision of Sir Launfal

"A saturated meadow
Sun shaped and jewel small
A circle scarcely wider
Than the trees around were tall
Where winds were quite excluded
And the air was stifling sweet
With the breath of many flowers
A temple of the heat

There we bowed us in the burning
As the sun's right worship is
To pick where none could miss them
A thousand orchises
For though the grass was scattered
Yet every second spear
Seemed tipped with wings of color
That tinged the atmosphere

We raised a simple prayer
Before we left the spot
That in the general mowing
That place might be forgot
Or if not all so favored
Obtain such grace of hours
That none should mow the grass there
While so confused with flowers."
-   Robert Frost, Rose Pogonias

"Summer set lip to earth's bosom bare
And left the flushed print in a poppy there."
-   Francis Thompson

""Summer is coming!" the soft breezes whisper;
"Summer is coming!" the glad birdies sing.
Summer is coming - I hear her quick footsteps;
Take your last look at the beautiful Spring.

Lightly she steps from her throne in the woodlands:
"Summer is coming, and I cannot stay;
Two of my children have crept from my bosom:
April has left me but lingering May.

"What tho' bright Summer is crownèd with roses.
Deep in the forest Arbutus doth hide;
I am the herald of all the rejoicing;
Why must June always disown me?" she cried.

Down in the meadow she stoops to the daisies,
Plucks the first bloom from the appletree's bough:
"Autumn will rob me of all the sweet apples;
I will take one from her store of them now."

Summer is coming! I hear the glad echo;
Clearly it rings o'er the mountain and plain.
Sorrowful Spring leaves the beautiful woodlands,
Bright, happy Summer begins her sweet reign."
-   Dora Goodale, Summer is Coming

Almanac for Gardeners - Monthly Activities and Lore

Annie's June Holiday Page 

August: Quotes, Poems, Lore

Can Teach Summer Poems 

Creating Circles and Ceremonies: Rituals for all Seasons and Reasons.  By Oberon Zell-Ravenheart and Morning
Glory Zell-Ravenheart.  Franklin Lakes, New Jersey, New Page Books, 2006.  Appendices, glossary, index,
288 pages.  ISBN: 1564148645.  VSCLC. 

Cuttings - June    Short poems by Michael P. Garofalo.  

Daoist Health and Spiritual Practices

Elaine's Spring Page 

Flowers: Quotations, Lore, Myths, Resources

Folklore Calendar   

Green Way Blog

Green Wizard 

In Nature's Honor: Myths and Rituals Celebrating the Earth.  By Patricia Montley.   Boston, Skinner House Books, 2005.  Index, 379 pages.  ISBN: 155896486X  VSCLC. 

July: Quotes, Poems, Lore 

June Holidays: School of the Seasons

June - Links from Yahoo

June Lore   

June: Mystical World Wide Web

June Poem Hunter 

June Quotes and Quotations ThinkExist 

June Quotes GIGA  

June: Quotes, Poems, Lore

Midsummer: Magical Celebrations of the Summer Solstice.   By Anna Franklin.  St. Paul, Minnesota, Llewellyn Publications, 2003.  Glossary, appendices, bibliography, index, 225 pages.  ISBN: 0738700525.  VSCLC. 

Months:  Quotes, Poems, Links, Gardening Chores 

One Druid's Journey - The Green Wizard's Notebooks  

Poems On/About June

Quotes for Gardeners    Over 3,500 quotes arranged by over 140 topics. 

Red Bluff, California.  Natural History Studies at our Home and Gardens.  Valley Spirit Center.  By Karen and Mike Garofalo. 

Sacred Circles:  Bibliography, Links, Resources, Quotations, Notes, Construction 

September: Quotes, Poems, Lore

Spring Days

Spring: Links and Ideas for Teachers   

Spring Poems 

Spring Poems and Poetry  114 Spring Poems

Spring Poems: Apples for the Teacher

Spring Poetry  

Spring  -  Quotes, Poems, Sayings and Quips for Gardeners

Stories of the Months and Days   

Summer Poems and Poetry  110 Summer Poems

Summer: Quotations, Poems, Lore, Gardening Chores

Summertime - Links for Educators 

Taoist Health and Spiritual Practices

Ways of Walking 

Zen Poems

Clichés for Gardeners

Weather Lore

The month of June is blithe and gay,
Driving winter's ills away.

A swarm of bees in June
Is worth a silver spoon.

He who bathes in June
Will sing a merry tune.

Flaming June
Puts the world in tune.

A dripping June
Puts the world in tune.

June damp and warm
Does the farmer no harm.

A dry June
Brings the harvest good and soon.

Astrological Signs:  Gemini,  May 21 -  June 21

Astrological Signs:  Cancer,  June 22 -  July 22

June  Birthstones:  Ruby

Typical Weather for Our Area   Red Bluff, California

Red Bluff, California.  Natural History Studies at our Home and Gardens 

The Spirit of Gardening

Watering on a regular basis.
Mowing lawns.
Weeding around vegetables and shrubs.
Maintenance on lawn mowing equipment.
Enjoying vegetables and fruits.
Thinning out excess fruit on trees.
Mulching with straw.
Training vines on support structures.  
Relaxing in the shade.
Enjoying annuals in bloom.  

June Gardening to Do List - All Zones

Oregon State University June Tips

Earth Wise Creations June Tips - Zone 9

Top Garden Projects for June in the Pacific Northwest by Ed Hume

52 Weeks in the California Garden by Richard Smaus

The Gay Gardener - Monthly Chores

The Garden Helper Tips for June - Northern U.S.

Gardening Tips - March - Zone 6 - New York Botanical Garden

Master Gardeners Tips

Monthly Gardening Calendar for June