Chasing Rainbows
Celebrating the High Tide of the Year
“What is so rare as a day in June? Then, if ever come perfect days. . .”
James Russell Lowell
After a rainy April and an unusually warm and dry May, the month of June has bestowed a nearly ideal gift: a prolonged weather pattern of cool mornings, afternoon highs in the low 70s , and sunny skies. We turned off the air and opened the windows.
Iowa is in full bloom. My flower gardens have been putting on a show this spring, from the Siberian iris to the peonies and now the lovely lilies. Sanctuary. The remaining mulch has been spread across the landscape, and the last flower pots filled after a visit to Flowers Galore, the Mennonite greenhouse that opened last year a few miles away on a gravel road near the unincorporated town of Ridgeport. I’m still mourning the scar in the front yard where we lost a hardy Hackberry, and the backyard gash inflicted in search of a broken tile. But not today!
We decided to try a new restaurant in the town square of Jefferson on the first night of the town’s Bell Tower Festival. This year’s theme was High Time to Chime, with decorations highlighting the nation’s 250th anniversary. The food was good at The Public House & Lounge, and the decor was unique.
The backstory of the place was even better. Over the past five years, owners Amanda and Addi Bills have been renovating this two-story cornerstone building. They began work on the second floor of the former hardware store, renovating it into six apartments. Sustained by a series of grants and powered by a lot of elbow grease, they completed the restaurant and lounge on the street level this spring.
We loved this vintage pickup in the back room that belonged to the Bills’ great grandpa. Work is about to begin in another niche, which will be leased to house a new bookstore. A new hardware store is located on Highway 30 on the north side of Jefferson. But how uplifting to see a building with so much character in the historic Main Street Community repurposed into this delightful space!
Homegrown Creations
The weather wasn’t quite as perfect for the annual Pilot Mound Day celebration. Our younger daughter, home for a visit, quickly corrected me when I referred to it as Pilot Mound Days. It is a singular event – in many ways. We enjoyed the annual Biscuits and Gravy Breakfast and bake sale hosted by Mirza Lodge #303 from Ogden to benefit our local fire department. It swells the number of people in town from 140 to a record crowd. Unfortunately, the Shake the Ground in Pilot Mound Car Show was dampened by raindrops, along with the Bags Tournament. But you could avoid the rain by playing the Puzzle Contest inside, or getting a sneak peek at the new Pilot Mound Museum room, featuring the framed photos of graduating classes and trophies from glory days of the former school.
Before it began sprinkling, we drove a few miles south to the Rinehart Family Farm Farmers Market on Kale Road. The family used to travel 120 miles round-trip each week to sell their produce at the Des Moines Farmers Market. Then during the Covid-19, they discovered a great home-grown appetite for fresh produce and other items within a 25-mile radius. We quickly strolled through, catching the last asparagus harvest and the first of the strawberry crop.
Later in the day, we attended a Celebration of Life at the Grand Heritage Community Center in nearby Boxholm, population 175. Neighbors, family members and friends from far and near gathered to honor Marva’s memory and reminisce about their school days as a Grand Bobcat.
Four years ago I wrote about how this “new” addition to the old school, including a gymnasium, kitchen, classrooms, locker rooms, shop, and Early Childhood space, was saved from the wrecking ball 10 years after it closed. Local community members and farmers rallied, taking possession in 2023, and submitting a series of grant applications, and recruiting generous donations from alumni. It’s required lots of evening meetings and elbow grease.
Preparations are underway for the Boxholm 4th of July celebration held there, and over Labor Day, the Center will host an All-School Reunion for Grand Community, Boxholm, and Pilot Mound. It’s fun to drive by and see little league baseball teams on the diamond again. A small playground on the former school grounds was funded by a grant obtained by The City of Boxholm. Future plans include a fitness center in the old shop, and a day care in the Early Childhood space.
I served as school board president here, and it was our board vision to preserve this one-story addition as a community asset. It’s heartwarming to see the next generation carry out this through.
On Saturday evening we ventured farther from home to a new restaurant built over Saylorville Lake in Polk City: the Soggy Frog Marina Bar and Rooftop Restaurant. As we drove south from our farm, the sun was slipping toward the horizon, and I looked to the east. Suddenly I saw the beginnings of a rainbow. Our daughter captured it on her phone. But just as suddenly, it evaporated
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The Soggy Frog was packed, and the live band on the patio was plenty loud. But it was a nice view of the water and marina, and a fun vibe. When we arrived home, we enjoyed a dish of Marion Blackberry ice cream from Boone’s new ice cream store, The Stone Path.
Taking Root
June is the namesake of Juno, the ancient Roman goddess of marriage and childbirth. It’s the month of new beginnings. We celebrated the wedding of a great-nephew, and the birth of another one this month. Down the road, it’s exciting to see the foundation for a new home has been poured. A young couple is building in a scenic nook just north of their parents’ acreage. It’s refreshing to see members of the younger generation choose the road not taken, settling close to their roots. Rural Iowa needs them!
Just to the south, remnants of native prairie that have grown undisturbed since the arrival of European settlement in the 1830s were discovered at Don Williams Park two years ago. On National Public Lands Day in September 2025, our small 4-H club helped dedicate a new sign designating the newly-named area, Violet Ridge. We applied for a Pioneer Community Improvement Grant, and earlier this week, we planted native prairie plugs beneath the sign.
It’s no small feat to synchronize the kids’ busy summer schedules. Our Boone County Conservationist Chelsie had tilled the site, and the 4-Hers, alongside their parents, worked steadily to break up the clods. We planted 72 plugs ordered from Allendan Seed Company near Winterset: from pale purple coneflowers to Rough Blazingstar, Prairie Dropseed, Little Blue Stem, Prairie Violets –and more! The ample rainfall the next night set the small plugs off to a good start. It will be fun to watch the plot grow. The families who camp, golf, and enjoy Don Williams Lake will gain a glimpse of the prairie that was here before Iowa became a state.
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Savoring the Here and Now
William Wordsworth likely never visited Iowa in June. In 1807, he wrote, “The world is too much with us; late and soon, Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers; Little we see in Nature that is ours.”
Writing this during the chaos and disruption of the first Industrial Revolution, he certainly nailed it in the year of our Lord 2026. It’s so easy to be weighed down by the woes of the world. Wars, nasty political rhetoric, data center debates, a dismantled US. Dept of Education, looming arches, a monstrous ballroom, and our inhumanity to the most vulnerable.
“We are out of tune [with Nature}. . . It moves us not,” Wordsworth wrote.
But it doesn’t need to be this way. Closer to home, the month of June encourages us to celebrate the ordinary and extraordinary events that bring people together, give thanks for young entrepreneurs with vision, treasure our natural assets and community landmarks, and look to the promise of the future. We don’t need to be tethered to national events 24/7; sometimes we must slow down, and look around to discover what we’re missing. There will be another time to take up the causes we hold dear.
On Wednesday night, I looked through the east windows of our home, and called for my husband to bring his phone to the porch. He took the photo below, but again within less than a minute, the nascent rainbow faded.
So far in June, on the eve of the summer solstice, a full-fledged rainbow has eluded us. Two budding ones raised our hopes, and then dashed them quickly.
Is there a lesson here? A reminder to appreciate the transience of life, and its beauty? If so, the takeaway isn’t to dwell on the disappointment that a perfect rainbow has escaped our view.
What would be sad is if we stop looking for these rare moments in life, or believing in the possibilities ahead.
What about the treasure at the other end of the rainbow? Maybe, just maybe, on one of these rare days in June, we’ll realize we’ve already found it
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“Joy comes, grief goes, we know not how. . .
Who knows whither the clouds have fled?
In the unscarred heaven they leave no wake,
And the eyes forget the tears they have shed,
The heart forgets its sorrow and ache;
The soul partakes the season’s youth,
And the sulphurous rifts of passion and woe
Lie deep ‘neath a silence pure and smooth,
Like burnt-out craters healed with snow.”
Thanks the positive neighborhood update)
Love this story, Cheryl! It took me back to summers spent at my grandma's house in tint Deloit, Iowa. The joys of the gardens, the neighbors, and the quiet evenings filled with fireflies. Thank you.