The Rose Moon of June

A lovely quiet in the park at the base of the fountain, and the moon coming up over the angel's outspread wings on the longest full moon night of the year... It felt good to sit nearby with a fine velvety summer darkness all around, the sound of nights birds in flight and water falling into the wide basin at the angel's feet, leaves and grasses perfuming the soft air.

In the northern hemisphere it is high summer, and we tend to think of the burning intensity and power of old Helios ascendant, not the silver aura of Lady Moon lighting up the summer night against tapestries of twinkling stars, silhouetted trees, marble fountains and falling water.  Hers is a gentler more serene presence, easy on the eyes, tender on one's heart.

Swiftly fly the days this far north and other less balmy times are somewhere beyond the hill.  Tending our shaggy fruiting gardens, we revel in the light, but we are already thinking of harvesting, gathering in and putting bounty by for the seasons to follow this one.

In the Lanark Highlands, the first harvest of the year is already in progress, and the fields are dappled with great round bales of fragrant hay: timothy (or blue grass), alfalfa and sweet clover. Is there anything on this planet to compare with the delightful and rather spicy fragrance of freshly cut clover?

The corn is growing by leaps and bounds, and fields of barley are "pinking up" nicely. At sunset there are deer and fawns grazing along the shadowed verges of freshly mowed fields, wild turkeys foraging in woodland groves and expressing their pleasure in clear voices that carry for some distance.  Our cups, our pails and our baskets runneth over with light and abundance and contentment in June; our thoughts are lodged in warmth and golden sunlight.

We also know this moon as the: Bass Moon, Big Mouth Moon, Big Summer Moon, Blackberry Moon, Bulbs Mature Moon, Columbine Moon, Corn Tassels Appear Moon, Dancing Moon, Duckling Moon, Dyan Moon, Egg Hatching Moon, Egg Laying Moon, Egg Moon, Eucalyptus Moon, Fatness Moon, Fish Spoils Easily Moon, Fishing Moon, Flowering Cherry Moon, Full Leaf Moon, Gardening Moon, Green Corn Moon, Hoeing Moon, Honey Moon, Hot Moon, Lady Slipper Moon, Leaf Dark Moon, Litha Moon, Lotus Moon, Lovers' Moon, Mead Moon, Middle of Summer Moon, Midsummer Brightness Moon, Midsummer Moon, Moon of Horses, Moon of Little Fawns, Moon of Making Fat, Moon of Planting, Moon of the Turtle, Moon When Green Grass Is Up, Moon When June Berries Are Ripe, Moon When the Buffalo Bulls Hunt the Cows, Moon When the Hot Weather Begins, Moon When the Leaves Are Dark Green, Moon When the Leaves Come out, Moon When They Hill Indian Corn, Oak Moon, Peony Moon, Planting Moon, Pomegranate Moon, Raspberry Moon, Ripening Moon, Ripening Time Moon, Seventh Moon, Sockeye Moon, Solstice Moon, Strawberry Moon, Strong Sun Moon, Summer Moon, Sun High Moon, Thumb Moon, Turning Moon, Watermelon Moon, Windy Moon

I am also fond of Blackberry Moon, Green Corn Moon and Honey Moon.