And what is so rare as a day in June?  Then, if ever come perfect days….Whether we look, or whether we listen, We hear life murmur, or see it glisten.       James Russell Lowell

The long, light days of June have slipped by, and we really have had some perfect days!  The combination late Spring/early Summer brings warm, wonderful weather, incredible plant growth, exquisite flowers, and animals intent on nesting and raising their young.  Life murmurs and glistens all around us, subtle yet extravagant, common yet miraculous.

Wild Geranium is a delicate woodland flower that graces the paths through our woods.

False dandelion grows in our woods, though I have also seen it in full sun along the road ditches.  A cluster of small, dandelion-like flowers sways atop a two-foot stalk.

Our sun garden displays the glorious Penstemon digitalis ‘Husker Red’.  It has dark maroon foliage and shining white flowers on tall stems.  You can see why its common name is Beard tongue; the sterile stamen (one of five stamens) is lined with tufts of small hairs.

One of my prairie garden flowers–Amsonia or Bluestar–looks perfect in front of the wispy prairie grasses and the Western South Dakota petrified wood.

One of the critters that walked through our June yard was a Western Painted Turtle.  She quickly ambled through the dewy grass until she saw me–then she stopped as I got pictures of her.  She was likely on her way to her nesting place where she digs a hole with her hind feet and deposits her clutch of leathery white eggs.  Incubation time is 72-80 days, and since we live so far north, the hatchlings stay in the nest until the following spring!

Tiny wild strawberries and our larger cultivated ones turn a shiny red in ripeness–a sweet treat for whoever finds them first.

Outside the screened-in porch, the chive blossoms line up like children at the schoolyard.

And speaking of the screened-in porch, my re-do project is on bird delay!  A robin thought the unscreened cross beam would be a perfect place for her grass and mud nest.  There are three hungry baby birds in the nest in spite of the sawing and hammering going on below. Staining and re-screening will have to wait until the young ones fly from the nest!

A couple of other creatures seemed to want a glimpse of human life inside the big wooden box with windows.  I observe Nature every day–do we ever think about the creatures observing us?

All I can say to the little critters is that I definitely need to wash windows!

I liked this photo of Leopard’s Bane against the Norway Spruce tree.  The flower is spent, on its way to decay with petals drying and falling off and with ants crawling on it.  It is up against the supple new, green growth of the spruce tree.  A study in contrasts.

But there is beauty in the ‘spentness’ of flowers, too.  Dried blue blossoms of the pretty variegated Jacob’s Ladder reminds us that the bridge between heaven and earth includes the worn out and expended of us who are just a little farther along on our journey.

Perennial Blue Salvia in its ‘spent’ state provides food for a pair of American Goldfinches.  It is in its prime time of nourishment for others, though its peak visual beauty is past.

So June encompasses the fresh, invigorated newness of plants, flowers, and creatures and also those in decline.  Like all the seasons of Nature and of Life, change is always happening, whether barely discernible or a drastic metamorphosis.

Perhaps the rarity of a perfect day in June is not so rare after all.  Perhaps every common day holds miracles waiting to be seen and heard.  Where ever we are on our journey, whether ready to fly from the nest, in the perfect place, or in a spent state, we have gifts to offer the world and one another.  As the murmur of angels ascending and descending beside us, escorts us on our journey, it is our faces that glisten on each perfect day.