June Activities

 

Hydrangeas

 In the Northwest, May and June are months when the Hydrangeas are in bloom, as long as it stays cool.

The Green Man and Pan

"There lies within
A hidden glen
An altar made of stone.
Creeping vine
And moss entwine
To hide this ancient throne.
Tangled thorn
Grows thick to scorn
Those who seek to enter.
For though they strive
No man alive
Shall ever reach its center.
Known as Pan,
To some Green Man,
This glen is his sacred place.
He dons his hood
Of wildwood
To hide his leafy face.
The roving clans
That raped the lands,
Cut down his beloved trees.
And so, alas
As time did pass
The Green God fell to his knees. ..."
- Kristina Peters Moone, The Green Man

"The force that through the green fuse drives the flower
Drives my green age; that blasts the roots of trees
Is my destroyer.
And I am dumb to tell the crooked rose
My youth is bent by the same wintry fever.
The force that drives the water through the rocks
Drives my red blood; that dries the mouthing streams
Turns mine to wax.
And I am dumb to mouth unto my veins
How at the mountain spring the same mouth sucks."
-   Dylan Thomas, The Force That Through the Green Fuse Drives the Flower

The Green Man

Lore, Legends, Tales, Celebrations, Springtime Symbols, Folk Stories and Plays
From the hypertext research notebooks of Mike Garofalo

This cabbage, these carrots, these potatoes,
these onions ... will soon become me.
Such a tasty fact!
- Mike Garofalo, Cuttings

Portrait of the Emperor Rudolph II as Autumn.By Arcimboldo, 1591, Held at the Museo Civico, Brescia. 

     A Repost from May 2018.  

July

Repost from July 2024:

We will  have hot weather today - over 93F (34C). This high temperature is infrequent in Vancouver, Washington. 

We did all our watering chores and gardening projects early in the morning.  Then, we rested in the shade in the afternoon and read, listened to music, and napped.

Listening to Adam Hurst on cello Obscura, and 2 albums by the chromatic harmonica virtuoso, Gianluca Littera.

Even a squirrel was lounging below the wisteria vine.

I set down pavers in the area below the back bedroom shower. It is a paved area, part of the back porch, and under total shade of the wisteria vines.

Karen worked in the vegetable garden and on potting various plants.

  

The Spirit of Gardening Website

Sunshine and Shadows - Quotations

"The eastern light our spires touch at morning,
The light that slants upon our western doors at evening,
The twilight over stagnant pools at batflight,
Moon light and star light, owl and moth light,
Glow-worm glowlight on a grassblade.
O Light Invisible, we worship Thee!"
-  T.S. Eliot

"Darkness is to space what silence is to sound, i.e., the interval."
-  Marshall McLuhan, Through the Vanishing Point

"What ideal, immutable Platonic cloud could equal the beauty and perfection of any ordinary everyday cloud floating over, say, Tuba City, Arizona, on a hot day in June?"
-  Edward Abbey 

Most Honored Greening Force

Repost from June 10, 2013:]

"O most honored Greening Force,
 You who roots in the Sun;
 You who lights up, in shining serenity, within a wheel
 that earthly excellence fails to comprehend.
 You are enfolded
 in the weaving of divine mysteries.
 You redden like the dawn
 and You burn: flame of the Sun."
 -  Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179), Viriditas
 


"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 

"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

The Spirit of Gardening

The Month of June

Summer Activities: Reading, Gardening, Celebrations, Travel

Every month, I browse, fast read, or read ten to twenty books, and carefully read or study two or three books on the following subjects: the history of ideas, intellectual history, zeitgeist studies, philosophy of history, biographies.  

Intellectual History - My hypertext notebook

This month, for example: 

Whitehead, Alfred North.  Science and the Modern World, 1926.  

Dictionary of the History of Ideas: Studies of Selected Pivotal Ideas, 4 Volumes.  Philip P. Wiener, Editor in Chief.  New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1968, 1973.  For example, Volume 1: 677 pages, Contains: Abstraction in the Formation of Concepts to Design Argument.  An outstanding resource for under $70.00 for the four volume paperback set.  VSCL. 

 

I am retired, so I am like a college student again.  I use libraries and bookstores to acquire new and used  titles, and reread books books in my home library.  I read articles on the Internet and this counts for six books.  

Currently, I am reading books and articles related to the history of thinking about time, processes, the meaning of the future, process theology, ecology, feelings of duration, Whitehead, Hartshorn, Cobb.

Process Philosophy

Getting ready for Summer Solstice Celebrations, and busy with gardening at home.  Our California weather permitted vegetable gardening all year, with "summer veggies" from May to October.  The Solstice (June 21st) is one kind of a "Mid-Summer" celebration of maximum Sun during the day, fertility, productivity of agriculture, gratitude for blessings from the Earth, exuberance, zest ...

Our Summer 2021 travel adventures include a trip to cabins and boating on Silver Lake, Fourth of July fun, a wedding in Spokane, river boat trips, Olympic National Park (Forks, La Push), and mid-summer visits to the Pacific Coast.  Canada is still closed due to pandemic flu rules, so our trip to British Columbia (300 miles north) will wait till later.  

Pulling Onions by Mike Garofalo

Wild Hues to the Sultry Sun

In Red Bluff, we seldom have sultry summer days.  Our temperatures climb to 100F in the daytime, but the humidity is typically low at 17% to 40%.  

Our apricot trees have finished their fruiting season.  Now we have nectarines, plums, and figs ripening.  

"O most honored Greening Force, 
 You who roots in the Sun;
 You who lights up, in shining serenity, within a wheel
 that earthly excellence fails to comprehend. 
 You are enfolded
 in the weaving of divine mysteries. 
 You redden like the dawn
 and You burn: flame of the Sun."
 -  Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179), Viriditas 

"Now summer is in flower and natures hum
Is never silent round her sultry bloom
Insects as small as dust are never done
With 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 

"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

The Spirit of Gardening

The Month of June

Summer Vacation and My Retirement

Today is the last day of my weekly part-time employment for this school year, 2015-2016.  I begin my summer vacation, tomorrow.  This vacation will run from June 3rd until August 18th. 

I will focus on enjoying my home and gardens this summer.  Taijquan playing, walking, gardening, weightlifting, and teaching yoga and taijiquan will be my somatic practices; albeit modified to help my right hip and right knee to mend from a recent hard fall I took while running.  I intend to travel to Oregon and Washington.  Plenty of reading and writing on hot summer afternoons.  Family visits and outings. Researching the subject of Hedonism.

I work part-time, 3 days and 24 hours a week for the Corning Union Elementary School District serving 2,100 students in grades K-8.  I've worked part-time for the CUESD since 1999.  I am a classified supervisor.  I have managed five libraries, textbooks and consumables, websites, educational software support, and have written and managed budgets for $4.5 million in grants for the district.  I work as a substitute teacher as needed.  It has been an enjoyable, challenging, and worthwhile employment opportunity.   

I have decided that the upcoming 2016-2017 school year, which runs from August 18th, 2016 until June 3rd, 2016 will be my final year at this job.  I will be 71 years of age when I retire in June of 2017.  I have been employed since I was 15 years old - 54 years of work.   

Hopefully, I can live a few more years and remain in good health and be able to enjoy myself, prosper, learn, create, and contribute something positive to others.