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Bex Hall > Art Projects > The month of June bursts with life

The month of June bursts with life

July 7, 2021

Bugs, birds, and bunnies are stars of the show

June 2021 Nature Journal & Phenology Wheel

June unfolded with hanging wisteria, feral roadside tiger lilies, and mimosa trees laden with pink powder puffs. Little yellows and common blue butterflies flit from coneflower to verbena to dianthus.

This is the time of abundant sweet strawberries, so June’s full moon came to be known as the Strawberry Moon by the Algonquin tribes.

June 2021 Nature Journal

June also hosts the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, also known as the summer solstice, when the sun is directly over the Tropic of Cancer. This day marks the beginning of the gradual decrease of daylight. The climax in the three-act structure of our summer narrative.

Every workday morning my husband drives down our little rural road and if he sees four or more rabbits, he calls me to report the count. We’ve seen as many as eight bunnies dive into the safety of the brush from the asphalt as we make our way to town. 

The red-winged blackbird is plentiful and I see them among the cattails in the marshy areas and near the river where the mayflies are still swarming. In the 14 years here, this is the first time I’ve seen mayflies in July.

Red-winged blackbird

At the end of the month we saw a juvenile red-tailed hawk unsuccessfully attack a snapping turtle which was creeping across the road. We’ve watched with amusement as the clumsy hawk bumps into limbs, flounders, and lands on the ground. It’s as if it “picks up its skirts” and with care, long stride lunges on its lily white legs across the grass for a few feet before it stretches its wings, takes flight and soars over the river.

June 2021 Phenology Wheel

The month held oven heated air, humidity, and a few cooling thunderstorms. Magnificent, moody sunsets. Bats swooping for a meal at dusk. Evenings into nights sprinkled with fireflies floating and blinking above the dewy grass.

Every sunset is different

“Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow, that I shall say good night till it be morrow.” —Shakespeare

Strawberry full moon

See you next year, June.

Filed Under: Art Projects Tagged With: creative life, creativity exercises, nature journal, phenology wheel

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About Bex

 

Bex Hall

Her writing has appeared in various online and print publications, most recently in Kerning, a literary magazine, and in the Stories of Hope Collection in Transplant Living. Her artwork has appeared and sold through the Grayson Gallery. She blogs here about creative life and creates in Studio BE overlooking the Ohio River. Her work in progress is a memoir about the secret life of objects.

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