JUNE BLOOM AMID THE GLOOM

To Angelenos, June means two things. Actually, that's a lie. Like everything else in Los Angeles, June means approximately 12.9 million different things to the 12.9 million people that live here, so I'll put it this way. There's a couple, a dark brooding man and his bright cheery girlfriend that show up at the Los Angeles party every June. People put up with the downer of a guy in this couple because his girlfriend is such a fox.

The guy is known as June Gloom, the weather pattern that creates an opaque, gray cloud cover every single morning that the date starts with a six. Thankfully by noon, it burns off revealing the sun we all know and worship. All Angelenos know this guy, they humor him and just wait for him to leave.

But June Gloom never shows up alone. He always brings his hottie girlfriend the jacaranda tree. Everyone's always happy to see her. Every June the neighborhoods of Los Angeles become pocked with these electric purple bursts of vegetation. Seemingly overnight, these wonderous trees appear everywhere, offering up sticky, sweet blossoms in a hue so vibrant, you'd think it was a prop for some mysterious shoot. If Prince ever decided that his next phase should be to become a tree, the jacaranda would be his model.

Here's a jacaranda across the street from my office.

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june gloom • jacaranda