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“Summertime is always the best of what might be.”
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Charles Bowden
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“Rest is not idleness,
and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees
on a summer’s day, listening to the murmur
of the water, or watching the clouds float
across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.”
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John Lubbock
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It is June, and we are enjoying those magical longest days of the year. On Saturday, the sun will rise here at 5:46 AM, as it has been doing since Tuesday, June 7. But we will have that extra minute of golden sunshine as it waits to finally set below the horizon at 8:30. Both Saturday and Sunday will be our longest days this year, at 14 hours and 44 minutes. Official Summer Soltice is scheduled for Monday June 20, but the sun will wait until 5:47 to rise that day, making it a minute shorter than Sunday.
Interesting, isn’t it, that our American observance of Father’s Day falls, this year, on our longest day of the year, the day when the sun takes longest to traverse the sky?
But then, on Tuesday, the sun will still rise at 5:47, but will set at 8:31 PM. And these times of sunrise and sunset will continue through next Friday, June 24. So we will actually enjoy a full week of Summer Solstice; days nearly 15 hours long, at our latitude.
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What are you doing to celebrate the Summer Solstice? Are you traveling, or enjoying the pleasures of home? Are you on vacation now from school or work?
We are enjoying these long summer days in our garden. There are daily changes as plants grow and bloom. Hummingbirds, song birds, and every sort of insect buzz about outside. Our yard now sports five different turtle nests, where mother turtles have left a clutch of eggs on rainy days.
This is the time of year when we search out farm stands for peaches and home grown tomatoes, new potatoes, squash and blueberries. The menu changes to what may be sliced quickly and eaten fresh and cold.
Our first Hibiscus buds opened yesterday. Sweet Gardenia flowers near the door greeted me for the first time this morning. The Buddleia have covered them selves in nectar rich blooms. It is finally summer, and we welcome the magic summer always brings.
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“It was June, and the world smelled of roses.
The sunshine was like powdered gold
over the grassy hillside.”
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Maud Hart Lovelace
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Photos by Woodland Gnome 2016
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