Flaming June
JUNE is ‘bustin’ out all over’, as Oscar Hammerstein so brilliantly wrote of this month of abundance or, as Gertrude Jekyll had it, ‘the time of perfect young summer’. Gatherings are back in full swing as if they’ve never been away, from long-awaited weddings—longfellow called this ‘the month of marriages! All pleasant sights and scents’—to the poignancy of postponed memorial services.
This weekend has both the local jubilee fête with pin-the-tail-on-the-corgi and the Derby with its top hats and lucky heather; soon, it will be Royal Ascot. Last week was RHS Chelsea, with its cliffs of sentry-like delphiniums and lupins and a visibly delighted monarch transported around by buggy; now comes the village flower festival and someone’s prized, so carefully nurtured gladioli or perfectly risen sponge cake.
Tents will burst with cider and cheeses at the Royal Bath & West Show this weekend and its arena with a vibrant chequerboard of cattle, sheep and pig breeds—what a sight (Town & Country, page 68); next, it’s Bramham Horse Trials in West Yorkshire, where Olympic medallists and local producers of fine horseflesh will mingle after a threeyear absence. There’s cricket, from village to Lord’s, regattas, fairs, opera and alfresco theatre. Picnic hampers will be dug out, frocks altered, morning suits brushed and hats dusted, cucumbers and marrows monitored, speeches written, cows shampooed, ponies plaited, parasols raised and barbecues lit.
The wedding, catering and hospitality industries are joyfully back in business— what a relief—so is face-to-face trade at equestrian and agriculture events (you can only shop online for so long before it loses its charm). Britain’s native livestock breeds —we have more sheep breeds than any other country—can again be marvelled at and promoted. Myriad countryside groups will be honing displays—ferreters, falconers, hound parades, shooters and anglers—all of whom will get their chance to explain to a curious public how the threads of their crafts stitch into the countryside tapestry.
These treats are the more precious for their absence and especially against a backdrop of rising costs for petrol, entrance tickets and ice creams. Not only do thousands—millions, even—of people depend on the British summer for their incomes, but these events are only made possible by the huge volunteer forces who form close-knit communities within each occasion, making friends for life and reaping an instant social life.
If the pandemic and the grievous events in Ukraine have taught us anything, it is to make the most of simple joys and bathe in the familiar. Even sitting in a traffic jam may not feel so bad.