In June the world is brand new. Never in the year is the foliage fresher, the kaleidoscope of greens more vivid, the smells of the natural world more alluring and the urgency of life more palpable.

Growth and procreation are the order of the day. June’s long days convey a sense of unending time. Hal Borland, the acclaimed American naturalist and journalist, spoke of June as “long, sweet days we bought and paid for with long, cold nights and short bitter days at the dark turn of the year.”

This is a wonderful time of year to enjoy all that our senses can perceive. The smell of the early June air, especially on a damp morning, conveys the essence of a green world. This is a time to look closely at the beauty of new leaves and to reflect on all the services that leaves render like cooling the air through evaporation and providing a wonderful gift of shade.

In June we have the sense that this time of long days and short nights will last forever. The sun arches high overhead giving more than 15 hours of daylight. On or about the 21st of the month, we celebrate the summer solstice as the sun rises and sets farther north than on any other day of the year and thereby signals the imperceptible transition into summer.

The fresh, vivid canopy of June. Leaves not only provide a beautiful gift of shade, but they also cool the air and absorb carbon dioxide.

The thick, powdery layer of yellow “dust” that blankets most everything in early June is pollen — primarily from the male cones of pines. Each pollen grain has two air bubbles to make it light enough to be carried by the wind to facilitate the fertilization of female cones. Pine pollen also repels water, leaving bright yellow ribbons or thick rings along shorelines and the edges of puddles.

The thick, powdery layer of yellow “dust” that blankets most everything in early June is pollen — primarily from the male cones of pines. Each pollen grain has two air bubbles to make it light enough to be carried by the wind to facilitate the fertilization of female cones. Pine pollen also........

© Peterborough Examiner