JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: June is busting out all over! My mother always sang that song from the musical Carousel on this day, and as a June baby, I always felt it was meant for me. (When the puberty fairy arrived with her bike pump, it took on a new meaning, sigh.)
June always feels like a month of infinite possibilities and celebrations. Weddings, graduations, school letting out, the start of summer vacation, everything in the garden bursting to life. (So much life, it becomes hard to keep up with the mowing!)
I know if you’re living in the southwest, like Jenn and Debs, it’s a bit different weather-wise. My high on Monday is predicted to be 64°/18° and Jenn’s is 103°/ 39° !!!!!! But the rhythms of the season remain the same no matter where you live.
The baseball season is in full swing. Your friends are talking
about where they’re going this summer (my prediction is a revival of the
staycation, as the price of gas reaches eleventy hundred per gallon.) The local
grocery store has a towering display of everything you need for a cookout, and
you buy hot dog and hamburger bund for the first time in nine months. (Don’t
forget to toss the two buns you put in the freezer last October, optimistically
thinking you would use them at some point.) It’s your last chance to find
bathing suits in the stores, so Debs, get moving!
Since my June includes two weeks with Youngest and the Very Tall Dutchman (whom I will now abbreviate VOC, and the commenter who tells my why gets a virtual guilder,) and a concurrent visit from The Sailor, it’s kicking off in grand style. We’re going to a Sea Dogs game, taking VOC hiking in a wilderness area, and, if the weather cooperates, swimming in Celia’s lake. (The lake does not actually belong to Celia.) VOC also wants to see a super Walmart, but I may not tag along for that glorious excursion. Toward the end of the month, it’s a five-day oceanside writing retreat. Do I plan to go down to the boardwalk and buy 5,000 calories of greasy, salty beach fries? Yes. Yes, I do.
How about you, Reds? What does June mean to you, and what are your plans for the month?
HALLIE EPHRON: Spring makes me think of that song too… With special meaning because my dad was the director of the movie Carousel and he used to talk about the changeable Maine spring weather… They began filming that number dancing on a pier in Bar Harbor and had to relocate to the sound stage in Los Angeles to finish the scene because of the weather. If you know it’s coming, you can see the difference. So yeah, changeable.
JULIA: Every once in a while we have a discussion and I'm suddenly reminded our Hallie's family were genuine Hollywood royalty!
HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: And now I am singing! June used to mean freedom, and that whole long long long summer where we could do anything we wanted. Including slathering on iodine mixed into baby oil and sitting out in the sun with aluminum foil to get tan. I do NOT miss that! And still have the freckles to show for it.
Now it means three months until the book is due, and the whole
month will fly by. It’s all good, I’m delighted, but also here in Boston is it
FREEZING so it does not feel like summer yet.
I have actively scaled back on events this June–although I am interviewing some fabulous authors in person, and speaking at a big Girl Scout convention, adorably–but have to keep my days and nights open since I am gearing up for a fall book launch, and also, see above, my book is due. So June is a writing month. And you will find me at the computer for most of the time!
JENN McKINLAY: June is not the happy occasion in Arizona that
it is elsewhere. We’re checking the AC unit and making sure the pool is ready
for the dogs to shift from walking to swimming (with me, of course). It’s more
of a girding the loins until September month for us.
That being said, I’ll be in Colchester, CT on June 12th at 6 PM at the Cragin Memorial Library to give a talk and a signing. Click HERE for details. After time with the fam, I’ll be flying down to Myrtle Beach, SC to visit my college bestie and get in some beach time! Woo hoo!
RHYS BOWEN: I’m glad it’s June because May was not an easy month for me, as you can imagine. Planning a funeral, wading through endless paperwork, seeing bank, attorney etc etc. So I’m hopefully moving on to a time when I can enjoy summer. At this moment it’s cool and cloudy but it should warm up and then pool time.
My family has been so wonderful and
supportive that I’ve hardly been alone, and this month I have good things to
look forward to: granddaughter graduates from Santa Clara University and I’m
hosting a big party here. Clare and Tim will be here for a couple of weeks and
we’ll do fun things and then at the end of the month I’m flying to Canada with
Dominic and Meredith. We’ve an AirBandB on Vancouver Island, on a secluded
beach and then a few days in Victoria. They have been several times before and
know the best bakeries, oyster farms, blueberry farms etc. So that is
definitely something to look forward to.
DEBORAH CROMBIE: It is truly summer here. We’re easing into
the low nineties, but we’ve had a lot of rain and the garden is glorious. I’ll
be doing lots of grilling and hopefully a bit of lying in the hammock with a
book, before it gets too hot to stick a nose outside. Other than that, I
suspect it will be edits, edits, edits, and I’m looking forward to that.
Oh, and some birthday celebrating, too. Kayti and I are going to see Matt Haig (on tour for his new book, THE MIDNIGHT TRAIN) at the Dallas Museum of Art on Friday, with dinner at one of my fave restaurants beforehand. And I’m hoping that Rick will take me out for a movie date to see THE TUNER, as I’m a huge Leo Woodall fan. (And Hoffman fan, of course!)
LUCY BURDETTE: I’ll be in the writing cave with Hank–hoping to
finish the Paris book this month! John is going on a Grand Canyon adventure for
9 days so it will be quiet here, no need to cook big meals either. So I don’t
have a good excuse not to buckle down. I’ll also be playing golf, and some
pickleball, and taking another quick trip into New York to hear Sting’s opera
with two of my good pals.
JULIA: How about you, dear readers? What's on your calendar for June?
It sounds like exciting days for everyone! We have a high school graduation and a retirement [from the Army after thirty years of service] keeping our family busy . . . .
ReplyDeleteI am helping at our church’s version of VBS called Explorers Camp. It is every Monday morning for six weeks beginning June 8.
ReplyDeleteAlso dodging the afternoon storms that have begun popping up out of nowhere and keeping an eye out for the hurricane forecasts. The season for those is June-November. We typically just get wind and rain here as we are not on a coast. Maybe we will get lucky and there won’t be any like last year.
As Hank said, it's freezing here in New England, and I still haven't planted my tomatoes. Today for sure. I have a first draft to keep moving along that I really need to have done by the end of the month. Otherwise the Newburyport Pride parade is Saturday, a big No Kings rally on the 14th, and a Quaker yard sale I'm helping organize on the 27th.
ReplyDeleteBut the biggest event is my older son turning 40 on the 12th (wha? how did that happen?!) and the party my younger son is hosting on the 13th. My sons' father and his wife will be there, alas, so I will stiff-upper-lip it and be civil as I always am, and just hope John doesn't flare up at me as he nearly always does sometime during an all-family gathering.
9 days in Spain with daughter, son inlaw and granddaughters. Looking forward with glee!
ReplyDeleteWonderful! are you staying in one place or traveling around?
DeleteWe're heading off (G-d willing) on Friday for 3+ weeks in the UK. A week on the Scottish coast near Edinburgh, a week in Swaledale, Yorkshire, and a week in Northumberland (where we've never been before), finishing up with two nights in Edinburgh before we fly home. We'll see what sort of mix hip arthritis and walking make for. My Kindle is loaded up with new books (and old favorites), and the same for my Audible library. We're hoping that the high temps will be in the low 60s, and that the rain won't be too horrible. I've spent the last weeks getting ready for the trip, so when we return it's back to the grind (paper into article, long-overdue opera edition's introductory essay, etc.), and the Kentucky heat.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like a glorious trip Beth! happy travels.
DeleteLet's hope! Perhaps I'll provide some details along the way.
DeleteAs the boring one of the blog, I'll be doing pretty much the same thing as I have been doing lately. Looking for work, since I haven't hit the lottery and the bills still have to be paid. Cancelled one concert plan already. Such is life for the guy in the wrong age bracket. But hey, I do mowing my lawn to look forward to. You know, when it isn't 52 degrees outside and looking like it is going to pour any second.
ReplyDeleteAnn's here for a few more days before she heads off on World Retirement Tour Leg 2.5. She's going back to Mexico for a week, then going to some Halloween Haunt stuff across the country (3 stops I believe). She's also going to be cat-sitting for a couple of friends in between that too. (At their places that is). But then she'll be back later this summer for a couple more weeks too.
June better bust out all over. On Friday we had snow. Yes, that white stuff. About an inch. No, it was not welcome. I went into the greenhouse for something, and the poor geraniums were turning purple (they do that when they get cold – releasing an antifreeze product into their leaves to protect them. Snapdragons are also a plant where this is very obvious). Anyway – June is starting with sunshine rather than the last week of rain and wind, and today it might make it to a hopping 8 degrees Celsius which is 46 in F. Cold either way.
ReplyDeleteIn good news (I hope), our friend who is buying the sister’s house (more and more boxes and moving!) came over last night giggling. In spite of the cold and rain and aforementioned white stuff, the sign went up on their driveway, with the Real Estate cut to be presented today. Apparently in the bad weather yesterday, some people were driving around looking for waterfront property, got on the wrong road, and saw his sign. They came up, asked if they could visit the place (yes, yes, yeesss!), and toured and looked and loved it, the price and all! So, fingers crossed. Bids close on Wednesday.
Otherwise, construction will soon begin on the not needed garage extension (wood arrives today, someone else is giggling), I will continue to box, and shift and be frustrated, and just maybe June will bust out all over and bring some heat!
Rhys, if you are on Vancouver Island and want some peace and beauty, go for a walk in Cathedral Grove. It is a beautiful old grove forest, and so peaceful and quiet and awe-inspiring. It refreshes the soul.
We are playing with the idea of going on a road trip to Quebec in late September (see sale of house to have the friends look after the dog). It has been so long since we took any time off. In my head I would love to go to Boucheron as it is in Canada, but am sure that would not fly – so I will just dream…
I'm still chuckling bout the puberty fairy!
ReplyDeleteIt's Rose Festival here on the left coast Portland. This year they moved the Junior Parade from the first Wednesday in June to a Saturday (last Saturday). This event is in my neighborhood, and I have been known to walk down to watch. It's a parade for kids, and anyone can decorate their wagon or bike and be in it. A couple of years ago a friend, who is a Rose Festival clown, was carrying one end of the leading banner, so I had to go get some pictures! This year, I managed to get to the Farmer's Market at 8 am for my Hood and Sweet Sunrise strawberries, but then hunkered down until it was over. June means Rose Festival and Oregon strawberries! And my son is visiting and so is Rosie the goofy golden retriever. Life is full.
The big event this summer is a trip to Scotland specifically Shetland and Orkney. Two years ago our British Explorer cruise hard to bypass Shetland due to gale force winds; we were so disappointed and decided to plan a trip of our own which happens next month. I still remember Roberta’s tales of not having enough layers of clothing for her research trip so I’m packing for all seasons happening in one day!
ReplyDeleteVOC? Still trying to figure this one out!!
ReplyDeleteVOC = Visage of Cuteness I am guessing!
ReplyDeleteSounds like most everyone will be doing some fabulous things. As for my summer plans, I'm sorry if I am making everyone green with envy but I am having the entire entire of my house repainted, ceilings included. Since my painter can only work two days a week and has no help, because the other one aged out, I imagine I will be living with perpetual chaos all summer long. No idea why I ever thought this was a good idea. I should have just kept the lights down low and got rid of the most offensive cobwebs. But if I do bite the bullet (or the dust, whichever comes first) it will be that much closer to selling condition.