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”
The apparent path of the sun crossed the celestial equator at 23:09 Universal Time last night, making today the first day of astronomical summer in the northern hemisphere, the longest day of the year (and of course the shortest for those of you reading this in the southern hemisphere). In European tradition today was Midsummer, the holiday called Litha (from an Anglo-Saxon word for “summer”) by neopagans and St. John’s Day by Christians. It was the most important day of the year for many ancient peoples, and even today is extremely popular in Scandinavia and the Baltic countries, where there is scarcely any night at this time of year.
In my column of one year ago today my friend JustStarshine explained the spiritual significance of the day, and I shared my own feelings about summer: As a child I loved it because I was out of school, but once I grew up and could no longer take a three-month holiday the oppressive heat of New Orleans summers made them my least favorite season. But where I live now, the real summer heat does not arrive until July, and so I can once again enjoy the loveliness of June as I did in childhood. One of the chief pleasures of the season for me is the availability of fresh blackberries, picked by my own soft white hands from the vines on my own land; I gladly suffer the many thorn-scratches and insect bites to win buckets of the delicious fruit, and we enjoy blackberry pie, blackberry muffins and waffles, blackberry ice cream and other such treats, then blackberry jam after the fresh fruit is gone.
May all my readers, no matter what your personal beliefs, find joy and abundance in your lives, and may your fortunes increase through the summer and autumn as the fruits ripen for harvest. Blessed Be!
I’m growing blackberries too! Although where I live, so much farther north, they usually aren’t ripe until late July/August.
Happy Midsummer’s day!
Wonderfully poetic. Thank you, Maggie. Of all you harvest in your blog, I appreciate the abundance of variety most; it’s like a wild garden and orchard in the Subtropics: I’m slowly exploring the plethora of fruits, spicy, sweet, sour, bitter, poisonous, juicy, wholesome, ripe, green hard, soft, any kind. And everywhere thorns of course. No paradise without thorns. I think you live The Cause as the red sand in an endlessly colorful and intricate mandala. Thanks!
What a lovely compliment, Frans; thank you so much! I do try to present as much variety as I can so my readers don’t get bored with the same old thing; I try to keep Shakespeare’s words about Cleopatra in mind:”Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale her infinite variety.”
Blackberries. Yeah, I need to go look for some blackberries. Believe it or not, they do grow wild in suburbs. I might not be able to pick enough for pies, muffins, waffles, ice cream and jam, but I could pick enough for my oatmeal or for pancakes, and maybe share some with Laura, if she likes. I won’t tell her “Go pick your own dang blackberries!” because she has to work for a living, and besides, I like to do little things for her sometimes, like take out trash… or bring her some blackberries. I’m going to go look for some today.
While I agree with you that it’s the first day of summer, the weather forecasters in the UK think it starts on June 1.
And today has been dark, gloomy, damp and rainy; not, I hope, an augury of what is to come.
The Lovely thing about being a Unitarian Universalist is that the all encompassing nature of the denomination permits me to extend joyous holiday tidings to people of all faiths. A joyous Solstice to all of my pagan friends.
Yeah, me and my mates here in the arctic were talking about this very day on the way up here. They wanted me to do something today and scheduled it for morning – when I thought it was better to do at night. They LOL’d! Well, hell, it’s hard for me to keep up with these things – last time I was up here it was always dark!
But the main thing I want to say here is that my wife picks blueberries and I always tell her that the crop is more abundant if she picks them in the nude – as the female form is pleasant to the agricultural god or gods … or whoever.
Nah – she didn’t buy it either! 😛
And, it’s too bad – I’d have been glad enough to help her!! 😀
You’re in the Arctic too, sir? Whereabouts? Not, perchance, Alaska? Definitely the schedule is confusing if one doesn’t live here. We do have day and we do have night, but they can last about three months at a time.
We do not, however, have nudes. Only churches. Many… many churches.
Alaska: home of the Alaska Permanent Fund and the Permanent Fund Dividend, the only Basic Income system in the United States and, perhaps, the world. It’s been under consideration in some places, so maybe they’re doing it now.
I didn’t find any blackberries, but I haven’t given up. Now I need to give my sister some, too; she gave me grapes and bell peppers today.
They may be dried up by now; ours came very early this year. The picture above was taken on May 31st, and it was the second time I had picked. By the time I checked again on June 8th they were pretty much all gone.
Ah, well. That would mean a change of plans. I can check for mulberries, and Tracy has gotten a bag of peaches from a neighbor. If it comes down to it, I can just make extra lemonade pies this year.
All the blackberries in our yard are gone already. (They just sprang up wild a few years ago, at the corner of the house. We decided against mowing them down.) But I saw someone else with a bucket full of them in town today, so I guess they’re still available somewhere in this area.
Guess what I found out? I can make jam in my bread machine. Next year for the blackberries, maybe this year for something, though.
I already knew the thing could make mochi, though there isn’t a setting for it. I use the “pizza dough” setting.
How does one make jam in a bread machine?
Indeed, that is the question!
According to the instruction manual (I knew I kept that thing for a reason!), you put a pound and a half of chopped, sometimes mashed fruit into the machine with three cups sugar, run the machine on setting 18, and can with the jars you’ve cooked on top of the stove yadda yadda yadda. Some of recipes call for brown sugar, and some use two pounds of fruit, and some only call for two and a half cups of sugar, and I’m sure I can find more variations online, but that’s basically it.
Certainly you can grow scuppernongs there where you are?
I’m trying to grow them in the swamps of Louisiana – without a lot of success. Fucked up like Hogan’s Goat I’d say – I got three vines and the only one with fruit is the MALE one!! WTF???!!!
I’m not too far from Alaska – started this journey in Japan and I’ll punch out through Kodiac. 😀
One of my guys just told me there is a volcano somewhere off the coast of Alaska? I think he’s bullshitting me – will have to google.
Also – don’t call me “Sir” – no member of my family … going back to the Jacobites, was ever an officer in any military. We were always enlisted.
We’re pretty proud of that! 😉
Forgive me, My Lord. It will not happen again.
Righto, Master Chief. Heh, makes me think of Halo (XBox, not the special ops insertion technique) 😎