June Is Bustin' Out

my in-laws' azalea

On my first year in high school, I participated in a musical production number. We did an excerpt from Carousel and I remember us singing June Is Bustin’ Out All Over, complete with petticoats and ribbons on our hair :). The song describes the coming of summer with the arrival of the 6^th month of the year. It says we can see, smell, hear, feel it coming…we just have to look around to know it for ourselves. The previous three months are just prelude to the bursting cheerfulness of lively June.

But it seems like the “crowd of doubting Thomases” are right this time: summer might not come.Right now, after nearly a month of glorious weather in May, we have rain, rain and rain.And even flood in some areas, especially in the southern part of France. For several days, the news is filled with stories of submerged streets, flooded houses and even fissured roads (they look like an earthquake hit the area with paved streets riddled with gorges and big cracks).A real contradiction to “pretty little May”.


So, in the hope that before the end of this month, the Thomases would be proved wrong, I’m posting a few photos of fuchsia (or pink if you like) azaleas. Maybe their vivid gay colors might rub off, turning this dismal, stormy weather into a season bursting with color and sunshine. I know azaleas are spring flowers, not exactly the herald of summer. But then, we’ve had a wonderful spring… well, of course not entirely the whole spring. However, we really did have a marvelous time --- balmy weather and blue skies. And I’m thinking that maybe, by posting these radiant fiery flowers, it will serve as an omen of hope for this month.

I know I keep on talking about the weather, but my activities and even my moods are affected by it. Especially during summer. So I hope this photos will be a good portent of sunshine days in the coming weeks.