June's Full Rose Moon

June's full moon is sometimes called the Midsummer Moon.  In some years, it rises near the time of the Summer Solstice (June 21), the date about half way through the calendar year when the Sun reaches its zenith and rests briefly before beginning its slow, inexorable descent into shorter days and and longer nights. Never fear though, for at the Winter Solstice (December 21), we turn around and journey back toward the light.  The word solstice means "sun standing still" from a blending of the Latin noun sōlstitium meaning "sun", and the verb sistere meaning "to stand".  The Sun does seem to pause on the two solstices, but it is we earthlings and our little blue planet who are in motion, and not the magnificent star dancing serenely in place at the center of the universe we know.

Summer reigns in the northern hemisphere, and we tend to focus our thoughts on Helios ascendant, not the quieter (but no less radiant) Lady Moon lighting balmy summer nights in a tapestry of twinkling stars. When June's full moon makes its appearance, we are tending our gardens and thinking ahead to autumnal rhythms of harvesting, gathering and storing, anything at all except winter, cold and long nights.

In the eastern Ontario highlands, corn and oats reach for the sky and fields of barley are "pinking up" nicely.  The first grain harvest of the year is underway, and farm fields are dappled with bales of timothy (blue grass), alfalfa and sweet clover. Is there anything on the planet to compare with the spicy "sniff" of freshly cut clover?

At sunset, deer graze silently in the deep shadows along fence lines, and wild turkeys forage in high oak groves, gabbling their pleasure at the dainties on offer. Our cups are brimming over, but in a few days, daylight will be waning, and cooler times will be on their way - we accept their coming of course, but for the moment, our musings are all wrapped up in warmth, sunlight flickering through leafy trees and birdsong.

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, Sixth 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 rather fond of Flowering Cherry Moon, Full Leaf Moon and Honey Moon.