Into the Great Outdoors: Exuberant June

By Erin Marteal

June is one of the most magnificent months in the Finger Lakes region – not only does school give way to summer break, but the flora and fauna are at the height of activity, vitality and display.

June is the time of year when the most wild flowering plants are in bloom in the Finger Lakes, strawberries and mulberries are ripe for the picking, deer have dropped their fawn, and dragonflies, damselflies, hummingbirds, osprey and bald eagles are readily visible on wing. One natural June phenomenon I find particularly delightful is one we often neglect: The shrieks of delight erupting from the wild human child, set free at last from the confines of a long tenancy indoors.

With the heaviest of the spring rains behind us, June yields to more predictable, steady weather for enjoying more delicious time outside. The June sun calls us all to the outdoors and as long as we have sunscreen and plenty of water, we can usually stay for long periods of time with contentment, even thorough enjoyment in the company of the kind June breeze.

This is a time of year where outdoor splendor draws us like a magnet: To the pavement or field for a pickup game, to the garden for a handful of fresh herbs or cut flowers, or to the lakeshore for a picnic or sunset. Construction projects, lawn mowers, road closures, and all manner of hustle and bustle are in full swing now, lest we miss our brief, glorious window.

June’s natural exuberance synchronizes perfectly with the celebrations that are taking place in school halls, lakeside pavilions, and our own dwellings, porches and backyards. It is a bittersweet time of lasts for families with graduating seniors who will launch in some way into a new life, whether off on a gap year, off to college, or still working out what’s next.

Life as we know it will be changed forever for those families who will be saying goodbye to our first born, perched on the lip of the childhood nest, spreading wings, surveying the horizon and leaning into the wind. It is a far more sentimental time than I imagined possible, to shift from primary caregiver to witness and/or advisor-on-demand.

The closing of the chapter of childhood did come far sooner than I could have imagined, just like my mother promised it would when my hands were full with diapers, snacks, compromised sleep, and laundry. Though her words were not helpful at the time, it turns out they were true.

Sitting at the edge of the wetlands by Ithaca Children’s Garden’s turtle giantess, Gaia, I am in awe of a red-winged blackbird mother, cloaked with rich, velvety brown feathers, looking much more modest than her distinctive, trilling male counterpart. She is in her busiest season of mothering, flying to and fro carrying worm and insect beak to beak all day long. When she emerges from the cattails she leaves her nest exposed and I can see my presence concerns her. I am quiet and still as a statue until she is willing to consider I am not a threat.

I want to call out to her: Good job, mama! You are doing such important work, those babies, they can’t possibly express their appreciation for all you do for them, but they need you and you are working so hard to keep them well-fed and safe. It is not easy raising these babies with all manner of dangers lurking about. But you are doing it, and you are doing a darn good job, and whether you realize it or not, you are doing it all so some day soon, all too soon, they can fly away.

I recently came across a birthday card my son made for me when he was 6. It said, “Dear Mom, I love you and I will always live with you.” Some days I want to show it to him and remind him of his signed vow. But then I trip over his shoes and pile of sweaty workout clothes and realize there is a great wide world out there awaiting his discovery, not as a child in our family, but as a man. And I find reassurance in trusting that some lessons that seem to have been met with little success at home – like picking up after oneself – will certainly be learned somewhere, at some time, perhaps in a nest of his own.

In the meantime, we are enjoying the exuberant, celebratory season, largely outdoors, and together as much as possible.
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Erin Marteal has served Ithaca Children’s Garden as its executive director since 2011. She can be reached at erin@ithacachildrensgarden.org.