June firsts

People In The Know, know that, among many things, one of the things the Japanese do best are the seasons. Students will proudly confess, as if no one else in the world had ever experienced seasons, "We have four seasons in Japan." Truth be told, it is quite possible that outside of Japan, you probably have not experienced the particulars of each season with quite the attention and love in which they are celebrated  here.

My favourite name for the season we are in presently is Bai-u, the 'plum rain', and I had occasion to see, for the first time, in the Plum Grove in the garden a few days ago, the ground sprinkled with a good number of the small golden fruits fallen from the trees. Most of the green, unripe so-called 'blue plums' had already been harvested for the early summertime activity of making the delicious plum cordial called ume-shu. 

We have just emerged from 3 days of typhoon heavy rain into a beautiful cool morning, for which I am most grateful. I was out early for a walk and to take some snaps. I do love the adornment of raindrops on flowers, don't you? Yesterday, browsing through the Sasaki Sanmi's great manual on Chado: the Way of Tea, I was transported into reverie by this:

. . .  the sound of rain falling from the eaves and the singing of the kettle calm your mind. Isn't it fun to hear the occasional falling of ume (a plum) to the ground?

Just passing the time of day during the early summer rain is apt to lead to joy in the pleasure of tea and the way of tea . . .

Here are some of the gifts of June that have done my spirit good:

• For the nose: 
• the first good wafts of roadside gardenia and a promising pot plant with buds waiting to burst             
• on dry days, an evening coolness descending with the rising of the fragrances of the twilight
• strains of incense burnt to lift the spirits after the rain
• For the mouth:
•  the first cherries of the season
• the first (ever) ripened golden plum fallen from a tree in the Garden's orchard
• oka-hijiki
• For the eyes: 
• Hydrangeas all over the show, in every possible hue and variation, and a weekly bouquet from Mimi's garden
• Irises in best bloom
• Lush, voluptuous greenery
• For the ears:
• Whispering fans and softly roaring air-conditioning vents
• Singing and 'quacking' frogs and crickety bugs at night
• Rain slapping wetly down 
• For the heart:
• Rice sprouts are planted 
• Lotuses have begun to bloom
• Dashing and darting swallows after the rain & the sight of an osprey outside the window at breakfast this morning
• Clear/er skies for the solstice weekend supermoon 

Also, wonder-fully, I begin another year of life walking the earth, DG!

What are your June firsts?