JUNE - "The sun is rich and gladly pays..."

Spanish Ladies 

The sun is rich
And gladly pays
In golden hours,
Silver days,

And long green weeks
That never end.
School’s out.
The time Is ours to spend.

There’s Little League,
Hopscotch, the creek,
And, after supper,
Hide-and-seek.

The live-long light
Is like a dream,
and freckles come
Like flies to cream.

John Updike

Elder flowers

Yesterday our seven year old granddaughter caught her first fish - a rainbow trout no less - in the first of a series of Junior Angling Events this summer. Here she is with her daddy and the rainbow trout. Her dad is the one with the beard!

Junior Angler

I wonder - for how long have human beings been fishing? In our fortunate society we no longer rely on catching fish to sustain us. In other places, some people do, of course. That reminds me of the massive gap between societies - and yet, could it be that those who still need to catch a fish for dinner are happier than those in the "west" who abandon the wilderness for man-made acquisitions and a hedonistic lifestyle?

Nature deficit disorder is actually a thing! 

There's no danger of our three grandchildren suffering from that - but it concerns me, as an educator, that many little ones now have few opportunities to connect with the natural world. Dependency on technology and life in an artificial environment take their toll on adults and children alike.

Geums

June is an amazing month for reconnecting.   It's the month when you can walk outside without a coat, hat, scarf, gloves, thick socks, warm boots! It's the month when every day brings something new. It may be a fresh bud in the hedgerow, a glorious clash of colour in the border (the thing which only works in nature) or it may be some animal/bird behaviour you never recognised before.

On the first day of June, Keith connected in a magical way! I'd taken him for his Covid jab and made a cup of tea when we got home. We drank our tea in the little cottage garden and a butterfly landed on his shiny bald head. It stayed there a while. I managed to take a photograph with my phone.

Butterfly

On the same day, Ginny and Clemency watched Mummy Roe washing her fawn (Bambi Roe) AND, as Ginny was walking through the wood at the bottom of the garden, the increasingly familiar crow threw a pine cone at her. I think it was acting as sentinel for the other birds which hang out there. Sometimes he - or she - don't know which - brings us gifts. I like to think they are saying thank you for accepting them. Many people don't like rooks and crows. We know that they were here before we came - we moved in and we want to belong in their world.

Mummy Roe and Bambi Roe

 

When we came home from shopping the next day, Mummy Roe and Bambi Roe were waiting in the field. We don't move towards them. We let them be. They seem to like that.
We walked the dogs later and thought the curlews were angry with us. I said to Ginny, "Don't they know the dogs are on leads?" Apparently though, I have discovered that they can, according to folklore, predict the weather and they were telling us that rain was on its way. It is said that if you're out on the water and see curlews nearby, then you should prepare for a storm.

We had a lot of rain later that day!!

Stonecrop

This month Ginny and Judith have been reclaiming more of what had been a paddock, for our developing orchard. In doing so they rescued a toad, two frogs and a female blackbird from the mower. The trees are doing well - particularly the apple trees. The disappointments so far have been the cherries and the quince - although they are growing, their tiny fruits have disappeared.  It's difficult to understand why the cherries would go as they are in cages.

We found a friend

World Cup Fever has taken its toll! While Keith, Ginny and Judith stay up late and come down to breakfast wondering why they are so tired, Clemency and I have been loving our tournament diet of the historical farm series (so far this tournament we've watched The Victorian Farm) and A Year In Provence on repeat! 

Thyme and again

There's always thyme for one more!

I'm not sure what the wildlife in the garden thinks to these late nights!   One late evening Orlando, very much an old dog now, wanted to climb the big sycamore in the front garden - he was convinced there was something up there. He followed a trail along the tree line which leads back to the house and the way I think the pine marten can get into the roof space. This happened with both dogs over three nights. Last night something knocked over the heavy pot water bowl which I leave out in the cottage garden for the hedgehog family.

Another visit to Achies a week ago and I couldn't help myself! I bought a delphinium, Michaelmas daisy, two Chinese lanterns (physalis) and a very pretty sorrel - not the same as the sorrel growing wild here - the one I bought has larger leaves which are striped red and green. I looked it up when I got home and found it's called "Bloody Dock" and can grow very tall. Oops! Another one! The angelica I bought last year is now growing up into the Swedish Whitebeam. Didn't expect that either!!

Lupins

I bought the delphinium because I was so disappointed that the delphinium seeds given to me by my friend, Ann, all succumbed to the slugs. I even put sharp pieces of terracotta around the trough into which I had sown them. Slugs don't like to climb on sharp things. Perhaps they weren't quite sharp enough!

Another victim of the Stempster slugs was my first pumpkin plant. I put a collar of foil around it to deter the slimy critters but they went down into the soil and up inside the foil. I find their intelligence despicable!!!!! 

There's, so far, a happy end to the pumpkin story though. I had decided not to bother again but Judith thought otherwise, so, while we were at Achies, she bought another pumpkin plant for me. Over the last week this grew incredibly well in its original pot which I entirely surrounded by used foil.  Yesterday I planted it into a bigger container with a nasturtium. Overnight there has been no sign of a slug invasion - fingers crossed things stay this way! Nasturtiums are known to keep some garden pests away - I hope these include slugs.

Orlando really thinks he's hiding from us!

On the night of the twenty fifth of June and into the early hours of the twenty sixth, a very unusual thing happened for our family! In the small village south of Grenoble, where our son and his family live in France, on the Black Isle where our daughter and her family live north of Inverness and here in Caithness, at the top of the map, we all had thunderstorms. It seemed uncanny really. We were exchanging photos and videos. Amazingly we had only one very brief power cut but we were ready with our torches. When we moved in here five years ago, I bought a powerful torch for each of the five of us. We keep them by our beds. They were a smart idea - even though I say so myself! There are few things worse than finding oneself in a dark bathroom on a stormy night, waiting for the next flash of lightning to show you the way back to bed!

Ginny has been cleaning and preparing the bee hive for tomorrow's delivery of five brood boards of bees. She had a big disappointment when she lost her bees in early springtime. It's now time to try again.

Wasp nest

There are more than 270 species of bees in these islands and they all need the help of gardeners. As well as pollen-rich plants, bees also need long and short grasses, decaying wood, wobbly walls - walls with loose mortar - and a source of water. They also need us to stop using all pesticides. We can tick all of these boxes here at Stempster - although those slimy little critters, the slugs, have almost tempted me at times!!! I shall stay strong and accept the losses with grace!!!!!

Ginny's bees are of course honeybees - Buckfast Bees - and we are looking forward to welcoming them here tomorrow (Wednesday).

Midsummer celebrations have their place in the folklore of Britain. Some have recently achieved notoriety but, to the best of my knowledge, the ceremony known as Bawming the Thorn is an innocent and delightful family party for the villagers who live in Appleton Thorn in Cheshire. The school children dance around the famous thorn tree and decorate it with red ribbons. After the event this year, on June 20th, there was an opportunity for people to share their talents in a music festival. Naturally, the tree is believed to be a descendant of the famous Glastonbury Thorn. 

Trees and flowers are understandably a large part of summer celebrations across Britain. I remember trying to do clever things with flowers when I was a part of the organisation for Belton All Saints' Church garden party back in (around) 1971. I was awful at it! I've never been a flower arranger. But I think I managed to cobble together the required bouquets and posies for the day. 

Our garden in June is an unruly tapestry of colourful corners. We have so many different flowers, shrubs and trees scattered around our plot - but at this time of the year they are battling with the weeds. This year's major culprits are purple vetch and goosegrass.  Over the school holidays we hope to make significant progress. Will we? We'll give it our best shot! 

Such a wee beauty

Old fashioned pansies

The untidiness doesn't make it any less pleasant in the garden - it just means that we're constantly aware of all the work needed. The flowers, shrubs and trees are just as beautiful as they will be when the weeds have gone. The birds sing at least as sweetly. My two grandfathers couldn't possibly have been any more different as gardeners. Granddad Bobby, in his garden in Belton, let things have their heads until they became unruly and interfered with the things he'd planted. Granddad Johnson's garden, firstly at the gatehouse on Jeffrey Lane in Belton and, later, in Keadby, never had a weed in it. It was so disciplined and with rows and lines everywhere. I have always wondered why it was so strictly managed as he wasn't a fierce person at all. It is odd how different people develop their gardens. Different cultures too. Walled gardens were once popular in Iran and Central and South Asia. They weren't just for the elegant palaces either. Sometimes they were situated in towns too. It's delightful to think that Islamic gardens are said to mirror paradise. For me though, paradise is simpler. Just let me watch the changing seasons, using all of my senses to take in the life of things - the contributory factors and the resulting maturity. That circle of life can't be broken.

From the cottage garden looking towards the kitchen garden wall

New potatoes 🥔 

With our Sunday dinner yesterday, we had new potatoes from the garden. These were from last year's spuds. There are more to come - I planted some old varieties which Lydia gave us in springtime and Clem has planted some of those too so we should have a few more boilings yet. Always with mint! That's how it was when I was growing up. There was always mint then and there will always be at least one variety of mint in my garden - if only for the new potato season!  For gooseberry pie too!

The Poet's Wife

Dot's Mum's Rose

Tottering By Gently

The roses are all opening out now. The yellow iris by the river and the ones growing in the garden here are all in splendid flower and, slowly but surely, the sweet peas are beginning to perfume the air around them. My Warsaw clematis has produced the most amazing flower - and there are more buds too. The lupins have been magnificent this year but they are going over now. I love all the different shades but I think my favourite lupin this year is the intensely deep blue one. It's a huge plant too - with tiny lupin flowers opening out as the large ones die.
I planted three peonies in the cottage garden. Clem planted some in the front border, by the pond and in one of the cut-outs in the yard. Hers have all flowered. Mine haven't. One day they will!

Peony

First of the sweet peas

We had some of our own strawberries for breakfast yesterday and we've had a gooseberry crumble this month too. There are more gooseberries waiting for some brave soul to pick them.
June really is a generous month - constantly giving. The air smells of Peace - even when the news reports would let us think otherwise. If I kept a gratitude diary, I think I would say thank you every day in June - just for June itself. From the simplicity of the wild roses to the sophistication of my Warsaw clematis, I'm thankful.

Warsaw clematis

From our majestic Scottish mountains to our rain-drenched summer garden, I'm thankful.
The tiniest dewdrop hanging from a blade of grass in the morning is big enough to reflect the sunshine and the blue of the sky. Enjoy that sunshine and those blue skies!

Dahlia with pollinator