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Thursday, June 7, 2012

The pre- season.

June.

Still raining in the Northwest fifty percent of the time. Yet, we can't wait for sun anymore. We venture  outdoors with few layers, walking the beaches, digging and weeding in the garden, removing debris, cleaning gutters. We get soaked and muddied too often, grumbling that the sun is not keeping its appointment. Nobody seems to keep an appointment in this weather.

Roads have to be repaired before the crowds arrive. Flaggers and workmen slow down our routines of getting to town, stopping at the pharmacy, checking the newly opened farmers' markets with berries and lavender. Cherries appear from the interior lands, and asparagus, and plenty of arugula and kale. By now, in California, they are eating tomatoes, I whisper to no-one in particular. By now, my peas should have germinated!

This is our pre-season, pre- tourist, pre-family reunion, pre-celebration season. We are still paring down the accumulations of winter, clearing piles of papers and clothes, burning bonfires of dead wood, branches. We reset our gravel on the packed dirt, pull vines of invasive ivy and blackberry, and wonder how we can stand or move our arms after just an hour. Our aching bodies are tired quickly.

June will continually disappoint; yet, we hope and plan as though the few days of sunshine are harbingers of many more. Graduation parties will be rained out; weddings will be washed out, and even on dry days, the temperatures will still be cold for many seeds to germinate on their own; too wet for most feet to trample on the ground.

June is bread dough on the counter. It needs warmth, and time to get to the right size for baking as we watch and anticipate and salivate.





24 comments:

Brian Miller said...

smiles...i like your reflections on june...it is a waiting time for me...vacation next month seems so far away...i hope june is nice though...and the rain holds off since i am taking the boys to the pool today...

Hilary said...

I don't think I've ever heard a dreary June described so beautifully. It's like that sullen child that is still loved so unconditionally.

Hilary Melton-Butcher said...

Hi Rosaria .. love your post about your seedlings and then the grumpy old - and now June - it's being a bit grumpy here - holding back the veg and plants .. strange weather ..

Have a great rest of June getting everything ready that you can for the summer ahead .. cheers Hilary

ellen abbott said...

as lovely as it is up there it is too rainy and cold for me. I don't mind rain and we get plenty of it when we are not in a drought but when it rains, it rains big and gets it over with. our summers may be long and brutal in the middle but I'll take a couple of months of brutal heat over a couple of months of cold and rain any day.

The Broad said...

Commiserations from another cold damp place in the world! Your description of the month of June is equally apt here -- I grew up where my birthday was almost sunny -- now it's mostly 'not'! Beautifully written post, Rosaria...

Unknown said...

I love that: June is bread dough on the counter!

Unknown said...

I love that: June is bread dough on the counter!

Patricia said...

Enjoyed reading this, Rosaria. One thing our golden years give us is the pace to just be...with whatever is. To notice the changes instead of steamrollering (is there such a word?) through, eyes on a goal. I also loved the bread dough analogy! Here is Southern California we fondly call it "June Gloom," remember?

Dr. Kathy McCoy said...

Ah, yes, June Gloom! Oregon's sounds a little more intense, but - oh - what a glorious summer you will have when the sun finally emerges -- with everything green and flowering and your garden flourishing. In the meantime, I loved living cool, rainy June with you -- with bread dough on the counter! It sounds wonderful to one here in 100 degree plus territory!

Rob-bear said...

Come fill the cup, and in fire of spring,
Your winter garment of repentance fling
The bird of time has but a little way
to flutter - and the bird is on the wing.

~ "The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam," trans. FitzGerald, vii

Perhaps "Your pile of winter refuse you can fling."
And perhaps not.

Wonderful description of the world before tourists. Even if your sunshine is liquid.

Love the image of bread dough; so fitting.

dianefaith said...

I can't imagine having so much rain and so much cool weather. We've already had temperatures in the 90's here in the Southeast, although it has been cooler for the last couple of days. 77 today. In late July and August, I'm going to envy you so, so much.

yaya said...

Your June is my March...but you describe it so beautifully and the bread on the counter after it bakes will surely warm you up!

Linda Myers said...

June is a cheater of a month. I feel that every year. The days are very, very long, so it should be sunny.

Every year!

Shannon Lawrence said...

I love how you wrote this. I live in a semi-arid climate, just shy of desert, so moisture is rare here. Funnily enough, I grew up in Oregon, so it is a stark difference. We had what they are calling a 100-year storm yesterday, with so much hail that it was still piled up above people's heads in the piles it had been pushed into by the plows today. We got flash floods that buried cars. It was insane, and it was over in an hour (though the hail stuck around). It seems like a wet year, overall, as I saw friends in Texas posting about their hail storm yesterday (though theirs melted right away), and a friend driving through Louisiana talking about the rain there. Then my Oregon friends posting about their constant rain.

Oh yes, and today we had tornado warnings! They hit east of where I am, but we had the beginnings of a funnel cloud over the park behind my house. Crazy, crazy weather.

By the way, I miss those blackberry bushes! In Oregon and Maryland, I could take a walk and pick fresh blackberries. Here, I've never found a wild blackberry bush. I'm planting one this year in the hopes that it will stick around and spread. So funny what we take for granted when we have it, then miss when it's gone.

I hope your seeds germinate and you get a fabulous garden!

Diana said...

June as bread dough, what a great analogy! Last year June came on like a lion, this year like a lamb...we too are waiting

the walking man said...

June showers bring August flowers...or sometime close to that.
I will bear up under these near 80 degree days though another ten would be cool.

That gentleman's lady said...

June - hot hot hot

july - rain rain rain

June has always been one of my favourite months because of the 10:30 pm sunsets in the UK. I miss those this year.

Tabor said...

Rain is sustenance and will make your peas so sweet! Mine are all done as the heat has arrived and the ground hog didn't share very much!

Diane said...

I have never known such a dismal June here in France.I think the weather world wide is having a laugh at us!!!
Diane

Unspoken said...

"June will continually disappoint..."

Ah, how we wait on June surprises and wonder here in the Northwest! My potted tomato is very displeased, as Jane keeps pointing out about her snap peas :)!

Rachel Cotterill said...

It's really changeable here, at the moment. I don't know when we'll get summer!

Jinksy said...

Much of England is in the same boat - goodness knows how the 2012 Olympics will fare, if our weather doesn't give us a break in time...

Dianne said...

anticipation!
lovely writing
congrats on POTW

TexWisGirl said...

wonderfully written. congrats on your POTW!