In last June’s blog I looked forward to the 21st when the first lockdown measures were due to be relaxed. Things did not progress as quickly as we hoped but I’m happy to say that things are better in June 2022 that they were in June 2021.
Mind you I may not yet be as super-enthusiastic as were Rodgers and Hammerstein in 1945 (the war had just ended) when the ‘Carousel’ character Nettie Fowler warbled her way through “June is bustin’ out all over”, mentioning in passing that “the young Virginia creepers have been huggin' the bejeepers outta all the mornin' glories on the fence!”
Maybe I wouldn’t go that far (perhaps Mississippi weather is more predictable than that of the River Ivel), but this June offers cause for some enthusiasm. It no sooner starts than we celebrate Her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee and Pentecost on the same weekend (quelles froliques as the French don’t say).
Midsummer Day, June 24th, is also the feast day of St John the Baptist. Normally such days mark a death but in this case it marks the birth of JtheB, 6 months before Christmas, which reminds me that after June 21st, the longest day of the year, the days start getting shorter. How time flies!
June 21st was once marked as Beltane Day when bonfires were lit (it was all connected with sun worship) and of course more goings-on went on at places like Stonehenge; and on Kings Reach natives watch the sun rise over Potton [this bit is NOT TRUE (I don’t think. Beware believing everything you read online).
June 14th marks the birthday of Harriet Beecher Stowe (this IS TRUE), author of ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’, the great anti-slavery novel. A Northerner, she saw the reality of slavery when she went to live near the Kentucky border. After being in church one day she started to write the book and declared afterwards:, “I, the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin?....No. The Lord Himself wrote it. To Him alone be the praise!”
May we all like Mrs Stowe, hear and see - and do something about it.
Finally, back to Miss Fowler, still full of the joys of June:
June is bustin' out all over
The ocean is full of Jacks and Jills
With her little tail a-swishin'
Ev'ry lady fish is wishin'
That a male would come
And grab 'er by the gills!
Enough of that! We’re Anglicans!!
Colin Dixon