Beltane (last day)                                              New Lily Moon

Mounding potatoes this am.  They’ve grown very fast in a location I cleared out in the perennial garden a couple of years ago.  We have a limited number of full sun spots now and I wanted to make use of it.  Kate thought potatoes might go well there since I’ve used up the growing areas in the vegetable garden for them for now.  They have to rotate out every four years or the colorado beetles find them. Not fun.

Checking on the bees.  Should be ready for honey supers in the next week or so.  We’ll see.  A bit of weeding.  Then it’s back inside for Rembrandt and Ovid.  A busy day today.

Beltane                                                   New Lily Moon

At 6:09 tomorrow evening the summer solstice arrives.  Beltane will slide off into its now truncated cross-quarter holiday length and give way to the astronomical definition of summer.  Meteorological summer has already been under way for 20 days, beginning on June 1st.

What’s interesting to me right now is that this year the summer solstice will arrive during a new moon.  A full, dark night will punctuate the longest day.  After tomorrow, the long slow slide toward the Winter Solstice begins.  This movement from the full light of the summer solstice to the long night of the Winter Solstice is, for me, the most sacred and contemplative part of the year.

I appreciate Beltane as introducing the growing season and recognize the importance for all our animal needs that it represents, even so, for me, the trend toward darkness marks a time of greater richness for the soul.  I look forward to it.

We have two mildly thunder phobic dogs, Gertie and Rigel.  Rigel barks at the thunder, yet also likes to curl up in protected space.  Gertie whines.  So, last night Gertie slept in our bedroom and Rigel went to her safeplace, an enclosed spot by the door to the garage.  With the banging thunder and somewhat anxious dogs, sleep was at a premium last night.

May you live in an interesting June.  Old Minnesota proverb.  And this is one.  As we near the solstice,

Beltane                                                        Garlic Moon

I’ve got lilies blooming.  They’re early.  By about a week, maybe a bit more.  Lilies are my favorite flower, Asian lilies and Martagons.  Their colors are deep, rich, luminous.  I don’t know what it means that they’re out so early.  Might be the peculiar combinations of heat, cool and lottsa rain.

pic is from 2010, June 28

Beltane                                                    Garlic Moon

The garlic may not be harvestable under the garlic moon.  I took a guess, but it looks like I’m going to be off by at least a week if not more.  So, retrospectively, I’ll have to go with a traditional name for this moon, The Strawberry Moon.  We’ve had a lot of strawberries in the last three weeks.

Beltane                                                                  Garlic Moon

source:  Climate Central

WHAT WE KNOW

• On average, the US is 2 degrees F warmer than it was 40 years ago.
• This warmer world is increasing the odds of extreme precipitation,^(20,21) in part because a warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture, and release more of it during rainstorms and snowstorms.
• Heavy precipitation, both rain and snow, is happening more often than it used to.^(10,4)
• Heat-related extreme events are on the rise around the globe. Manmade climate change significantly increased the odds of some specific events, including killer European heat wave of 2003⁽⁶⁾and the Russian heat wave of 2010.⁽¹²⁾
• Even small increases in average temperatures raise the risk of heat waves ^(6a, 6b), droughts⁽⁷⁾and wildfires.⁽⁸⁾
• Twice as many record highs have been set in the past decade as record lows, in the US. ⁽⁹⁾
• By 2050, record highscould outpace record lows by 20 to one in the U.S. By the end of the century, the ratio could jump to 100 to one if greenhouse gas emissions continue unabated.⁽⁹⁾

Mother nature’s air conditioner is on its way, course we might have to pay for it with a tornado strike or two, but there you are.  I always think of Minnesota as a safe place when I read about Santa Ana fanned fires, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunami’s, hurricanes, then a sudden storm reminds of me derechos and tornadoes.  Oh, blizzards and 38 below zero, too.  Yes.  And ice?  Well, yes.  Other than that, though.

Inside with the air conditioner on and the heat outside.  Back ouchy after lifting a bag of not heavy at all mulch.  Geez.

Beltane                                                      Garlic Moon

Well, it’s happened already.  Kate and I have begun adjusting our gardening times for the upcoming heat.  Any of you with time spent in the south or the tropics will recognize the strategy.  Get up early and get stuff done.

Out right now to clean off the cottonwood fluff from the air conditioner and lay down mulch in the vegetable garden.  May get into the colony that still has only one box, too.  If not today, then for sure tomorrow.