Welcome to my favorite month of the year. June. Even the word June is beautiful.
Long, sunny days and balmy nights that call for midnight walks, star-gazing, and ice cream. Sandal season. Toenails painted the same vivid pink shade as my favorite peonies.
Midsummer’s eve, welcoming the summer solstice. Picnics. Even better, picnics on midsummer night’s eve. Thanks to a beautiful bit of synchronicity, one of my favorite events of summer, Symphony on the Prairie, opens the weekend of the summer solstice. The orchestra will be playing Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and I can’t think of a better way to start summer. I’m already planning what to pack in my picnic basket, and the special bottle of Champagne for that night is sitting on my kitchen counter as a reminder of good things to come.
Every June I re-read Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s Gift from the Sea. This wonderful book explores the necessity of not only looking inward, but of focusing on one’s development in order to fully live. Lindberg (the wife of Charles Lindberg)is especially potent when discussing the necessity of occasional moments of solitude in order to realign one’s priorities and give freedom to creative expression, rather than running oneself ragged with the million fragmented responsibilities of most women.
A new addition to my June line up is going to be the N.I.T.E. (Navigate Indy This Evening)Ride. The N.I.T.E. Ride starts at 11:00 pm from IUPUI’s Carroll Stadium on New York Street, travels along well-lit roads through Downtown Indianapolis, the Indiana Statehouse, Monument Circle, Butler University, Indianapolis Museum of Art, wanders along the White River and through the IUPUI Campus. I’ve never ridden through any of these places at night, because I value my life. This event makes it safe, and I’m already looking forward to the new experience.
“Green was the silence, wet was the light,
the month of June trembled like a butterfly.”
– Pablo Neruda
June 1, 2014
I love reading what you write.
June 1, 2014
Thank you, Debbie! That’s high praise coming from you. I love reading about (and seeing photos of) the things you cook. I was just reading about a recipe by Craig Claiborne and Pierre Franey in this month’s Saveur and I thought of you. You should have a food blog. I know I’d read it!
June 2, 2014
Lisa, you have such a talent for writing…you may have missed your calling.
June 2, 2014
Thank you, Sandy! It’s certainly vastly different than what I do for a living, as you well know. Although I did spend many years translating Parvin into English. 😉 I remember having to explain to her what so many colloquialisms and slang phrases meant.