June
Summer rain June ... mid-summer or the start of summer? As a gardener in East Anglia I think of it as the end of any risk of frost and time to plant out tender plants. Last year we were experiencing a extremely heat and drought, the grass already burnt to a frazzle, by contrast this year June has been a month of extremes ... heavy rain, windy and cloudy days and the occasional perfect summer's day. Last year I was just completing the illustrations for Lia Leendertz's 2019 edition of The Almanac - a seasonal guide ... so the illustrations for June were the only month I could actually draw from life. The opening illustration is of midday on a warm day in June ... maybe Midsummer Day when the sun at noon is at it's highest in the sky in the Northern hemisphere. Red Kites, now a common sight on my local walks on the Suffolk/Cambridgeshire border, ride the thermals high in the sky. In the shade of a hedgerow where wild Dog-Roses and Elderflowers fill the air with t