For the Love of June

Posted byKathleen Cassen MickelsonPosted inmindfulness, natureTags:, ,

Welcome, summer! Yes, I know the summer solstice is still a few weeks away, but Minnesotans are in full summer mode. The gardens are bursting, the school year is wrapping up, we’ve put chairs outside so we can plop down and linger anytime we want. There’s nothing like living in a place that includes winter to make one appreciate these June days and their gentle offerings.

As I settled in to write this post just yesterday, I realized my poppies were starting to open. I wait for these giant flowers every year, adore their deep orange ruffly petals. My mother loved this particular kind of poppy, too. She had some planted alongside our house in Northeast Minneapolis when I was very small. One of my earliest memories is how she, too, waited for them to bloom. I think it’s no coincidence that the color of the walls in my office is poppy orange.

There’s a passage in one of my favorite gardening books, Mrs. Greenthumbs: How I Turned a Boring Yard into a Glorious Garden and How You Can, Too by Cassandra Danz (New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1993), in which the author said of June, “This is the month that I dream about all year, the month that rhymes with spoon and moon, the month of flowers, the month of mid-summer madness, the month of ecstacy. June. Yippee.” (p. 113). This was one of the first gardening books I ever read all the way through. Danz was an entertaining teacher (she passed away in 2002), enthusiastic about all things gardening. I remember what she said about the month of June every year as I walk through our gardens looking for new blooms.

During those daily flower walks, I find myself feeling grateful over and over. Grateful for the wheel of the year that offers such variety, so many examples of how life unfurls, grows, recedes, then offers its remainders for the next cycle. The smallest piece of earth contains multitudes and we are stewards of so much more than we realize.

Happy June. May you have many blooms.

Photos by kcmickelson 2023.

Published by Kathleen Cassen Mickelson

Kathleen Cassen Mickelson is a Minnesota-based writer who has published work in journals in the US, UK, and Canada. She is the author of the poetry chapbook How We Learned to Shut Our Own Mouths (Gyroscope Press, 2021) and co-author of the poetry collection Prayer Gardening (Kelsay Books, 2023).

15 thoughts on “For the Love of June”

  2. Happy Summertime, Kathleen. Poppies are blooming in some of the gardens on our walking route here in Coos Bay, so we get to enjoy them that way. In California, we’re a short distance from a poppy preserve, and this year with the big snow pack and rain, gorgeous poppies were in great abundance, almost solid in the fields! xoA ❤

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  6. Your poppies are so beautiful! Living through Minnesota winters has taught me to slow down and appreciate the wonders of June for sure! That, and age! ☺️I am grateful for both!

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    1. If you can find a live plant to transplant, yes, give it a try. They do spread their own seeds after they’re done blooming, so if you can get a couple of plants to take, you’ll have a few more poppies the following year. It took a few years before I had a nice bunch. They are a little fussy. This year, none came up where the original group was, but the place where I transplanted some a few years back is thriving.

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