BetterMost, Wyoming & Brokeback Mountain Forum

Our BetterMost Community => The Polling Place => Topic started by: Front-Ranger on June 21, 2006, 07:39:05 pm

Title: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Front-Ranger on June 21, 2006, 07:39:05 pm
I'm dreaming about getting off work sometime before midnight so I can go celebrate midsummer night's madness. But how shall I celebrate?? Help me decide!!
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: serious crayons on June 21, 2006, 07:50:38 pm
In Sweden, they eat cold boiled crawfish and drink icy vodka. That sounds good to me.

(And I'll be drinking my icy vodka out of a certain little splatterware cup!)

Thanks for the reminder, F-R!
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: starboardlight on June 21, 2006, 08:06:32 pm
I think I might get some friends together and hitting the Standard Downtown rooftop bar and enjoy the LA evening sky.

(http://static.flickr.com/25/67807696_c77715cf07_m.jpg)
(http://lemonodor.com/archives/images/the-standard-rooftop.jpg)
(http://www.nationalgeographic.com/traveler/images/insidersla0507/insidersla_hdr.jpg)
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Brown Eyes on June 21, 2006, 08:09:19 pm
Congrats on making it into the 1000+ post club Lee!
 :D
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: alec716 on June 21, 2006, 09:07:07 pm
OK, you asked... and for some reason, I feel safe in responding.

I'm reflecting on the fact that it was 5 years ago this morning that a true soulmate of mine finished her 4-year battle with cancer and closed her tortured eyes for the last time as I held her.  Not trying to be melodramatic here, just reporting the facts.  There was not a dull moment in her 37 years.  Mary was one of the world's most passionate, energetic, caring people.  She loved her life, her partner and their son, her friends, the needy children in whose lives she worked tirelessly, her pets, and her rugby games.  Her last words, slurred when she momentarily and partially stirred from her coma, were "Help me live." 

What a gorgeous gift Mary gave me by asking me to walk her last earthbound miles with her ... & darn it all if I didn't get good with the morphine pump in the process!  Standing by her side, I faced the loss I feared every day in between her diagnosis and her death and came out stronger on the other side.  And since she was too g*ddamn special to be buried in the family plot, we made sure that her ashes reached her shaded church yard, crystalline Alaskan waters, and a sunny patch of the Amazon River.  I like to think that the sun hangs in the summer solstice sky just a few moments longer than it used to, since Mary is there to hold it up.

I continue to learn from the lessons of that period of my life.  Mary truly changed my life forever, and I am grateful.  I feel her energy around me all the time.

We rode it, Mary, as long as we could.  I love you.

Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: starboardlight on June 21, 2006, 09:12:10 pm
OK, you asked... and for some reason, I feel safe in responding.

I'm reflecting on the fact that it was 5 years ago this morning that a true soulmate of mine finished her 4-year battle with cancer and closed her tortured eyes for the last time as I held her.  Not trying to be melodramatic here, just reporting the facts.  There was not a dull moment in her 37 years.  Mary was one of the world's most passionate, energetic, caring people.  She loved her life, her partner and their son, her friends, the needy children in whose lives she worked tirelessly, her pets, and her rugby games.  Her last words, slurred when she momentarily and partially stirred from her coma, were "Help me live." 

What a gorgeous gift Mary gave me by asking me to walk her last earthbound miles with her ... & darn it all if I didn't get good with the morphine pump in the process!  Standing by her side, I faced the loss I feared every day in between her diagnosis and her death and came out stronger on the other side.  And since she was too g*ddamn special to be buried in the family plot, we made sure that her ashes reached her shaded church yard, crystalline Alaskan waters, and a sunny patch of the Amazon River.  I like to think that the sun hangs in the summer solstice sky just a few moments longer than it used to, since Mary is there to hold it up.

I continue to learn from the lessons of that period of my life.  Mary truly changed my life forever, and I am grateful.  I feel her energy around me all the time.

We rode it, Mary, as long as we could.  I love you.



wow. you are one lucky person to have had Mary in your life. and she to have had you. that was a beautiful post. and the solstice sunset will always be more beautiful for your having shared that with us. thank you.
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: David In Indy on June 21, 2006, 09:34:32 pm
I will be watching Brokeback Mountain..definately!

But  I might try to balance an egg on its' end while I'm watching it! ;)
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: David In Indy on June 21, 2006, 09:38:36 pm
OK, you asked... and for some reason, I feel safe in responding.

I'm reflecting on the fact that it was 5 years ago this morning that a true soulmate of mine finished her 4-year battle with cancer and closed her tortured eyes for the last time as I held her.  Not trying to be melodramatic here, just reporting the facts.  There was not a dull moment in her 37 years.  Mary was one of the world's most passionate, energetic, caring people.  She loved her life, her partner and their son, her friends, the needy children in whose lives she worked tirelessly, her pets, and her rugby games.  Her last words, slurred when she momentarily and partially stirred from her coma, were "Help me live." 

What a gorgeous gift Mary gave me by asking me to walk her last earthbound miles with her ... & darn it all if I didn't get good with the morphine pump in the process!  Standing by her side, I faced the loss I feared every day in between her diagnosis and her death and came out stronger on the other side.  And since she was too g*ddamn special to be buried in the family plot, we made sure that her ashes reached her shaded church yard, crystalline Alaskan waters, and a sunny patch of the Amazon River.  I like to think that the sun hangs in the summer solstice sky just a few moments longer than it used to, since Mary is there to hold it up.

I continue to learn from the lessons of that period of my life.  Mary truly changed my life forever, and I am grateful.  I feel her energy around me all the time.

We rode it, Mary, as long as we could.  I love you.



Oh God! Alec. What can I say after reading something like this? That was absolutely beautiful! I'm crying right now.

Thank you for sharing this life journey with us.
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Front-Ranger on June 21, 2006, 10:44:47 pm
Thank you very much Alec for sharing that with us. I would like to exit this world on the summer solstice too. I hope I can be half as courageous as Mary. Right now, I am having a wonderful time as Nature is putting on a spectacular show for me. Lightning, peals of thunder, rainbows, dramatic skies, sunsets, clouds, and rays of sun. And that wonderful smell of ozone. How I love the smell of ozone in the evening. Good night, oh my Brokie brothers and sisters.
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: vkm91941 on June 21, 2006, 11:34:26 pm
OK, you asked... and for some reason, I feel safe in responding.

I'm reflecting on the fact that it was 5 years ago this morning that a true soulmate of mine finished her 4-year battle with cancer and closed her tortured eyes for the last time as I held her.  Not trying to be melodramatic here, just reporting the facts.  There was not a dull moment in her 37 years.  Mary was one of the world's most passionate, energetic, caring people.  She loved her life, her partner and their son, her friends, the needy children in whose lives she worked tirelessly, her pets, and her rugby games.  Her last words, slurred when she momentarily and partially stirred from her coma, were "Help me live." 

What a gorgeous gift Mary gave me by asking me to walk her last earthbound miles with her ... & darn it all if I didn't get good with the morphine pump in the process!  Standing by her side, I faced the loss I feared every day in between her diagnosis and her death and came out stronger on the other side.  And since she was too g*ddamn special to be buried in the family plot, we made sure that her ashes reached her shaded church yard, crystalline Alaskan waters, and a sunny patch of the Amazon River.  I like to think that the sun hangs in the summer solstice sky just a few moments longer than it used to, since Mary is there to hold it up.

I continue to learn from the lessons of that period of my life.  Mary truly changed my life forever, and I am grateful.  I feel her energy around me all the time.

We rode it, Mary, as long as we could.  I love you.



Thank you Alec for sharing that VERY touching, poignant and moving memory with us. The infinite grace of the human heart and spirit never ceases to amaze and inspite.  So beautiful and so blessed.
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: serious crayons on June 22, 2006, 01:45:34 am
OK, you asked... and for some reason, I feel safe in responding.

I'm reflecting on the fact that it was 5 years ago this morning that a true soulmate of mine finished her 4-year battle with cancer and closed her tortured eyes for the last time as I held her.  Not trying to be melodramatic here, just reporting the facts.  There was not a dull moment in her 37 years.  Mary was one of the world's most passionate, energetic, caring people.  She loved her life, her partner and their son, her friends, the needy children in whose lives she worked tirelessly, her pets, and her rugby games.  Her last words, slurred when she momentarily and partially stirred from her coma, were "Help me live." 

What a gorgeous gift Mary gave me by asking me to walk her last earthbound miles with her ... & darn it all if I didn't get good with the morphine pump in the process!  Standing by her side, I faced the loss I feared every day in between her diagnosis and her death and came out stronger on the other side.  And since she was too g*ddamn special to be buried in the family plot, we made sure that her ashes reached her shaded church yard, crystalline Alaskan waters, and a sunny patch of the Amazon River.  I like to think that the sun hangs in the summer solstice sky just a few moments longer than it used to, since Mary is there to hold it up.

I continue to learn from the lessons of that period of my life.  Mary truly changed my life forever, and I am grateful.  I feel her energy around me all the time.

We rode it, Mary, as long as we could.  I love you.



Alec, you have now ensured that for at least a moment on the night of the solstice I will be thinking about Mary. You made me cry, which I'm sure wasn't your point, but it was beautiful in any case. Thanks for telling it.



Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: delalluvia on June 22, 2006, 07:15:52 pm
I'm a pagan, so I celebrate - special dinner, dressing up, incense, put out new decorations, light candles on the balcony, etc and I watch "Shakespeare's a Midsummer Night's Dream" (the Kevin Kline one).
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: David In Indy on June 22, 2006, 07:21:52 pm
I'm a pagan, so I celebrate - special dinner, dressing up, incense, put out new decorations, light candles on the balcony, etc and I watch "Shakespeare's a Midsummer Night's Dream" (the Kevin Kline one).

I wish I would have been  there for that. I LOVE Shakespeare!

"Ay me! for aught that I could ever read,
Could ever hear by tale or history,
The course of true love never did run smooth." (Isn't that the truth!) :D

I love incense too! :) Sandlewood and pachouli (sp?) are my favorites!
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Ellemeno on June 22, 2006, 08:22:54 pm
Alec thank you.  David, let's do the sandalwood incense.  Dela, can I come watch the movie with you?
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: alec716 on June 22, 2006, 08:47:59 pm
Thanks to everyone for the supportive posts.  If you think reading what I had to say brought tears, think about typing it!  ;)  Funny how talking to close friends (including Mary's partner) yesterday did not help me reach the tears I needed to find... but posting here did.  Y'all are messing me up good!  Thanks for the moral support.  Quite a bunch around these here parts.   :)
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: delalluvia on June 22, 2006, 11:06:57 pm
Alec thank you.  David, let's do the sandalwood incense.  Dela, can I come watch the movie with you?

C'mon over!  It's one of my favorite holidays and I watch that movie every single year on the 'eve.

David, currently my favorite incense is Edfu (sp?) Kyphi that is made up special over the Alchemy Works website.  I also have some high quality hotai[?] frankincense that smells like a dream.

Alec...words cannot express  :'(
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: David In Indy on June 23, 2006, 01:45:02 am
C'mon over!  It's one of my favorite holidays and I watch that movie every single year on the 'eve.

David, currently my favorite incense is Edfu (sp?) Kyphi that is made up special over the Alchemy Works website.  I also have some high quality hotai[?] frankincense that smells like a dream.

Alec...words cannot express  :'(

Edfu and Kyphi... that sounds good! Are these incenses ones we can purchase over at Alchemy Works? I was wondering because I would love to try them. I love Frankincense too. They use to burn Frankincense and Myrrh (sp?) during Mass when I was younger. I always thought it smelled good. :)

Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: RouxB on June 25, 2006, 02:29:02 pm
Thank you Alec! Another one in tears here-for a few reasons.

 O0
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: alec716 on June 25, 2006, 02:32:10 pm
Thank you Alec! Another one in tears here-for a few reasons.

 O0

Not only because of buyer's remorse on the margaritas?   ;)  But seriously, thanks....  :-*
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: delalluvia on June 30, 2006, 09:25:13 pm
Edfu and Kyphi... that sounds good! Are these incenses ones we can purchase over at Alchemy Works? I was wondering because I would love to try them. I love Frankincense too. They use to burn Frankincense and Myrrh (sp?) during Mass when I was younger. I always thought it smelled good. :)

Sorry, I've been out of pocket. 

Yes, you can purchase them over at Alchemy Works.  I highly recommend the site.  I've bought from there several times.
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: David In Indy on July 01, 2006, 12:17:24 am
Sorry, I've been out of pocket. 

Yes, you can purchase them over at Alchemy Works.  I highly recommend the site.  I've bought from there several times.

Thanks Delalluvia! I will have to check it out. I love incense. :)
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Front-Ranger on June 17, 2009, 11:20:55 am
Voting reset to zero!! Tell us what you plan to do to celebrate midsummer!!
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Jeff Wrangler on June 17, 2009, 11:26:09 am
How 'bout "Not a damn thing"?  :-\ It's Father's Day, and that has to take precedence for me.  :-\

"Happy tussling" is how one celebrates Beltane.  One celebrates the Solstice with a great big bonfire.  8)
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Brown Eyes on June 17, 2009, 11:27:55 am

I actually voted for "watching BBM."  It's been a while for me and the mood is striking me to see it again... especially today for some reason.  But, I'll wait for the weekend.

Of course, I'll also be calling Dad.

Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Front-Ranger on June 17, 2009, 11:42:53 am
What a great idea to watch the movie, friend Amanda!! I hope to hear your fresh insights this time around! It's entirely appropriate to watch Brokeback Mountain at this time, because both Ennis and Jack were fathers...and good ones at that!


"Happy tussling" is how one celebrates Beltane.  One celebrates the Solstice with a great big bonfire.  8)

Oh, I wish I'd known this back at Beltane, friend! If the Solstice is for bonfires, I started celebrating early. Went up in the mountains with FRiends last weekend and a campfire was the main feature (along with four-wheeling). I think it qualified as a bonfire because it was the kind where you have to stand or sit about 3 feet away; the kind where you have to dump all your clothes in the washer as soon as you get home to get the smoky woodsy smell out of them!
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Front-Ranger on June 17, 2009, 01:15:48 pm
Point of clarification needed: does the summer solstice mark midsummer, or the beginning of summer? Enquiring minds want to know! (Or is that inquiring? I've been surfing Scottish and English web sites, and now my spelling's all shot to hell!!)
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Jeff Wrangler on June 17, 2009, 01:29:35 pm
Point of clarification needed: does the summer solstice mark midsummer, or the beginning of summer? Enquiring minds want to know! (Or is that inquiring? I've been surfing Scottish and English web sites, and now my spelling's all shot to hell!!)

The summer solstice marks the beginning of summer.

Now, just to confuse matters, it used to be called "Midsummer Day," which really meant "Mid-year Day," because it was presumed to be the middle of the year, six months after/six months before the winter solstice.
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Front-Ranger on June 17, 2009, 01:50:17 pm
The summer solstice marks the beginning of summer.

Now, just to confuse matters, it used to be called "Midsummer Day," which really meant "Mid-year Day," because it was presumed to be the middle of the year, six months after/six months before the winter solstice.

Thank you, friend, that's great to know!!

Another way to spend the day might be to watch Were the World Mine about a gay teenager's audition for a musical version of Shakespeare's "Midsummer Night's Dream." Or, you could watch Woody Allen's version, A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy.
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: southendmd on June 17, 2009, 07:07:56 pm
Thank you, friend, that's great to know!!

Another way to spend the day might be to watch Were the World Mine about a gay teenager's audition for a musical version of Shakespeare's "Midsummer Night's Dream." Or, you could watch Woody Allen's version, A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy.

Good idea, friend.  Were the World Mine  just came out on DVD two weeks ago. 

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKsFo3q_yZA[/youtube]
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: serious crayons on June 17, 2009, 07:37:39 pm
the kind where you have to dump all your clothes in the washer as soon as you get home to get the smoky woodsy smell out of them!

Maybe you shouldn't be so quick to rid your clothes of their smoke and mountain sage and sweet salty stink!  :)

Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Jeff Wrangler on June 17, 2009, 08:32:32 pm
Maybe you shouldn't be so quick to rid your clothes of their smoke and mountain sage and sweet salty stink!  :)

I agree. I like a smoky, woodsy smell.  :)
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Front-Ranger on June 20, 2009, 04:40:02 pm
The Summer Solstice quickly approacheth!! Surely more than three people will be celebrating!!

The SS weekend began with a bang last nite as Denver Brokies gathered to grill and gab, folllowed by a high definition screening of our favorite film!! My first reaction upon seeing it again after many months was how beautiful Ennis and Jack were (beauty tinged with tragedy is more beautiful still). And then my next thought was, oh, it's going by so fast!! Just like my year of heaven did.

The sound system at my friends' house was so excellent, that I caught all the murmurings in the Dozy Embrace, and there are many! Also, at a couple of times, I got angry with Ennis and starting yelling at him during the movie! Losing my job and realizing how insignificant work is in the grand scheme of things has given me a new perspective on Brokeback Mountain.
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Brown Eyes on June 21, 2009, 04:28:54 pm
I actually voted for "watching BBM."  It's been a while for me and the mood is striking me to see it again... especially today for some reason.  But, I'll wait for the weekend.


Well, somehow my determination to watch BBM slipped away by the time the weekend arrived.  I think I still need to wait for a while more before I watch it again.  So, I'm going to watch Tipping the Velvet tonight instead.

Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Front-Ranger on June 21, 2009, 04:55:24 pm
Sounds good, friend. You should never force yourself to watch it! Hope you enjoy Tipping!
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Jeff Wrangler on June 24, 2009, 10:05:37 am
Today is the 24th of June, the Feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist. Once upon a time, due to errors in calculation, it was believed that today was the Summer Solstice. The day was celebrated with bonfires to ensure that the sun would return, as from now on, in the Northern Hemisphere, the days inexorably begin to grow shorter, until the Winter Solstice in December, the shortest day of the year. When Christianity gained power, it usurped the ancient pagan celebration of the solstice and substituted the birthday of John the Baptist to make it easier for pagans to accept the new Christian dispensation. Obviously no one knows on what day of the year John the Baptisit was born.
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Front-Ranger on June 24, 2009, 10:44:46 am
Thanks for the information, friend! So, first let's have a baptism, and then let's have a bonfire!!

The baptism--

(http://www.divshare.com/img/midsize/3880752-434.jpg) (http://www.divshare.com/download/3880752-434)
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Front-Ranger on June 24, 2009, 04:18:52 pm
Oops, I almost forgot to post the bonfire!!

(http://www.divshare.com/img/midsize/626712-789.jpg) (http://www.divshare.com/download/626712-789)
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: serious crayons on June 24, 2009, 05:54:48 pm
Today is the 24th of June, the Feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist. Once upon a time, due to errors in calculation, it was believed that today was the Summer Solstice. The day was celebrated with bonfires to ensure that the sun would return, as from now on, in the Northern Hemisphere, the days inexorably begin to grow shorter, until the Winter Solstice in December, the shortest day of the year. When Christianity gained power, it usurped the ancient pagan celebration of the solstice and substituted the birthday of John the Baptist to make it easier for pagans to accept the new Christian dispensation. Obviously no one knows on what day of the year John the Baptisit was born.

I IMed with a friend in Quebec this morning. He said St. John the Baptist Day is a legal holiday there -- he's off work and there are concerts in the park.

Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: delalluvia on July 05, 2009, 11:59:50 am
Sorry, I was in Chicago at the time of the Solstice.  My friend doesn't celebrate, so I didn't do anything except mentally note the occasion.  I saw an occult shop right down the street from where I was staying with her, but I didn't get a minute to myself to run down to buy incense.  Then after vacation, getting back to a hectic work schedule and finally getting laid off, I haven't had the presence of mind to get my spiritual act together - for which the gods are not happy, I'm sure, but I need to be focused on them and not me, and it's kinda hard right now.  I did watch my holiday movie A Midsummer's Night Dream but have yet to do my regular ritual and here it is July already. :-\
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Front-Ranger on June 20, 2011, 03:48:21 pm
Last year at the Solstice I was visiting the ancient standing stones of Callanish on the Isle of Lewis. It was daylight there until 11 pm at night, and there were about 30 people celebrating, walking and talking among the stones, playing pan pipes, drums, and guitars, and photographing or measuring the stones. This year, I'll probably spend most of my time thinking about last year!

(http://i1081.photobucket.com/albums/j341/LeeRecca/UK/spiritstones.jpg)

(http://www.sacred-destinations.com/scotland/images/lewis/callanish/resized/callanish-circle-cc-colinjcampbell.jpg)
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Front-Ranger on June 20, 2011, 04:18:28 pm
The Solstice is at 17:16 UTC on June 21...so it's coming right up!!
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Shakesthecoffecan on June 20, 2011, 04:36:18 pm
As long as Happy Tussling does not involve Nelson Rockefeller's widow, I am all for it.

(https://secure.wireimage.com/images/arrow_blue_bullet3.gif)
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Front-Ranger on June 20, 2011, 04:50:54 pm
I assure you that Happy Rockerfeller was the furthest thing from my mind! So, put your money where your mouth (fingers) are, and vote!!
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Lynne on June 20, 2011, 04:55:24 pm
Thank you for bumping this old thread.  I went back and read it from the beginning, and Alec's post once again was so poignant.  I recommend it to everyone.

What to do tomorrow...

??
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Front-Ranger on June 20, 2011, 05:20:30 pm
Yup, Lynne. It bears repeating!

OK, you asked... and for some reason, I feel safe in responding.

I'm reflecting on the fact that it was 5 years ago this morning that a true soulmate of mine finished her 4-year battle with cancer and closed her tortured eyes for the last time as I held her.  Not trying to be melodramatic here, just reporting the facts.  There was not a dull moment in her 37 years.  Mary was one of the world's most passionate, energetic, caring people.  She loved her life, her partner and their son, her friends, the needy children in whose lives she worked tirelessly, her pets, and her rugby games.  Her last words, slurred when she momentarily and partially stirred from her coma, were "Help me live." 

What a gorgeous gift Mary gave me by asking me to walk her last earthbound miles with her ... & darn it all if I didn't get good with the morphine pump in the process!  Standing by her side, I faced the loss I feared every day in between her diagnosis and her death and came out stronger on the other side.  And since she was too g*ddamn special to be buried in the family plot, we made sure that her ashes reached her shaded church yard, crystalline Alaskan waters, and a sunny patch of the Amazon River.  I like to think that the sun hangs in the summer solstice sky just a few moments longer than it used to, since Mary is there to hold it up.

I continue to learn from the lessons of that period of my life.  Mary truly changed my life forever, and I am grateful.  I feel her energy around me all the time.

We rode it, Mary, as long as we could.  I love you.


Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Jeff Wrangler on June 21, 2011, 08:53:04 am
I think I'll be celebrating by simply trying to stay awake.  :(  I always feel these ancient "quarter days" (the equnioxes and the solstices) should be celebrated, but today seems to be not a good day. I'm very tired this morning and feeling a little stuffy and "funny" in my head. I think perhaps it may be that we have bad weather coming.  :(

Oh, yeah. I think the "quarter days" should be celebrated as a reminder to us modern, urban types, that we're still a part of the natural order. It's also a connection to our ancestors in the deep past of humanity.
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Front-Ranger on June 21, 2011, 09:46:51 am
I had quite a night meeself. We are drying out after a full night of rain on Sunday, and I woke up with wet stuff coming out of my eyes. It felt good to have a good cry, even though most of it I did while I was asleep. Don't know if I was crying for Rodney, for other loved ones, for opportunities passed up or just for the world in general, but I feel better now. Less bottled up.

I also had two dreams, both of which are reoccurring. In the first, I was in the lobby of my college dorm room where the mailboxes are. I wanted to get into the mailbox and then go upstairs to my room, but I had lost the key to both, so I just went away. In the second dream, I got up the courage to go into the pool room of my dream home, the one I've told you about many times. I had neglected the pool room for months if not years, and I knew it was a big mess of rotted and dead plants. But when I walked in, I was amazed that everything was fine. The plants were healthy and there was even an orchid blooming. It was spotlessly clean and the water shimmered with reflected sunlight. It was cool and humid and lovely. Someone has been taking care of that grotto for me all this time. And that someone is...another aspect of me!  :)
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: delalluvia on June 21, 2011, 11:27:34 am
Great start to this day.  After a series of scorching hot days 104 degrees on a couple.  The temperature dropped  10 degrees this morning and it thunderstormed.  Lightning and rain that came down for several hours.

Even the ground is sighing in relief.  The birds are ecstatic and the plants perky and plump with water.

Tonight - picnic dinner, candles the household gods and the movie "Midsummer Night's Dream".  My traditional midsummer's day celebration.
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Penthesilea on June 21, 2011, 12:10:26 pm
Not to rain on everybody's parade, but I always try my very best to ignore summer solstice.
I know it's the official beginning of summer, but my personal measure tape for summer is the question whether it's warm enough to go to the pool. Which is mostly three or four weeks before summer 'officially' begins.

Summer solstice to me means the days already start to get shorter again. :P I don't want that!
I love winter solstice for the same reason.

Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Jeff Wrangler on June 21, 2011, 12:14:59 pm
Summer solstice to me means the days already start to get shorter again.

That's always in the back of my mind, too. Adds a little poignancy to the observance for me.
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Front-Ranger on June 22, 2011, 09:43:21 am
Sounds like everyone had a rather "wet" summer solstice! And that's a good thing...very Brokieish! Or Brokesque...or Brokistic... whatever!

I also drew a Tarot card for the occasion, and it was the King of Cups! Very appropriate!
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Front-Ranger on June 23, 2011, 01:48:25 pm
This candle that I lit at the summer solstice is the same one I lit at the standing stones of Callanish one year ago. I went to each stone in turn and touched it, and stopped when I encountered one that seemed warm to the touch and "spoke" to me.

The lighter was given to me by the chef at Gallan Head, a small restaurant where we ate before going to the stones. They served excellent seafood, which you might expect for a place in the outer Hebrides group of islands far to the north and west in the Atlantic!! I'm so grateful that British Airways did not seem to mind me bringing it on the plane to home!  

(http://i1081.photobucket.com/albums/j341/LeeRecca/candlesolstice.jpg)
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Jeff Wrangler on June 20, 2012, 09:03:29 am
Today is the Summer Solstice, "the longest day of the year." From now on, inexorably, the days will begin to grow shorter.

Anyone going to dance naked around a bonfire tonight?  ;D
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Front-Ranger on June 20, 2012, 10:56:52 am
Probably not. There's a fire ban here.

It's cloudy and gloomy, but that's all right as long as it's sunny before and after.
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Monika on June 20, 2012, 11:12:27 am
I´m gonna visit the University of Wyoming Art Museum to participate in their annual summer solstice celebration
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Penthesilea on June 20, 2012, 11:16:38 am
I´m gonna visit the University of Wyoming Art Museum to participate in their annual summer solstice celebration


Cool! O0


Me: as always, trying to ignore it. ;D
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Marge_Innavera on June 20, 2012, 01:14:24 pm
Sonic's milkshakes are half price all day in honor of the Solstice.  It's just a matter of deciding on what flavor.   ;D

Today is the Summer Solstice, "the longest day of the year." From now on, inexorably, the days will begin to grow shorter.

I know what the science is; but it's always seemed so odd to me that after the first day of summer days start getting shorter and after the first day of winter they start getting shorter.  "Tent don't look right....."
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Jeff Wrangler on June 20, 2012, 01:57:49 pm
Sonic's milkshakes are half price all day in honor of the Solstice.  It's just a matter of deciding on what flavor.   ;D

Dang. I haven't had a milkshake since I-can't-remember-when.  :(

I'd go for strawberry. Do they have strawberry?
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: brianr on June 20, 2012, 04:29:09 pm
It is winter solstice here so no dancing naked. 3'C outside at 8.30am.  We will have a parade in town on Saturday night with lanterns that children have made over the last few weeks. This year the theme is "A Frosty Night conjures memories of starry winter evenings, frost, icicles and a moment in time when the world seems to hold its breath." 
I was a bit disconcerted when I went to a concert last Saturday night and had to clean a thin sheet of ice off the windscreen when I came out to go home.
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Jeff Wrangler on June 19, 2014, 02:28:56 pm
The summer solstice is this weekend.  8)
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Front-Ranger on June 19, 2014, 10:38:57 pm
I must confess that I have a problem with people who hate the summer solstice. Would you dislike a rosebud, because it will eventually become a flower, and then grow old and die? How about a baby, who will eventually grow up and become an adult, and then grow old, etc.? I say, let us welcome the solstice that marks the beginning of summer, and throw off our cloaks of doubt and sorrow, dance and enjoy the carefree days as we were meant to do!
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Penthesilea on June 20, 2014, 12:42:52 am
I must confess that I have a problem with people who hate the summer solstice. Would you dislike a rosebud, because it will eventually become a flower, and then grow old and die? How about a baby, who will eventually grow up and become an adult, and then grow old, etc.? I say, let us welcome the solstice that marks the beginning of summer, and throw off our cloaks of doubt and sorrow, dance and enjoy the carefree days as we were meant to do!


Nope, not me. For me it doesn't mark the beginning of summer; it has been summer, weather-wise, for a good while now, and it's like this most years.
For me it marks the beginning of the end of the long days, and I dislike that immensely. It's a reminder that a part of the better days in a year is already behind us. Not like a rose bud, but like the first rose in a bouquet that begins to wither long before the others. It's still a nice bouquet to enjoy, but I don't like that one rose.
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Jeff Wrangler on June 20, 2014, 09:11:51 am
For me it marks the beginning of the end of the long days.

I try not to think about that.  :(

Especially since I will probably not get to do any traveling this fall, my favorite season (September doesn't count as fall for me), but that's a topic for another thread, or my blog.

Meanwhile, I'm sort of planning that tomorrow night I will have a dinner of steak, baked potato, and brussels sprouts, watch an episode or two of Wagon Train on DVD, and then go out and get drunk as I usually do.
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Front-Ranger on June 20, 2014, 10:26:28 am
Everyone, I have reset this poll, so you need to vote again. Also, you can vote for more than one thing. Please vote!!
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Shakesthecoffecan on June 20, 2014, 12:37:55 pm
Stuck in this fucking goddamn office, probably still listening to the same stupid OCD woman talking about her fucking chickens.
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Penthesilea on June 20, 2014, 02:18:18 pm
Okay, I voted Doing something new and Other.

Something new is not entirely correct, but comes closest. My hubby's company is throwing a big, fat WM-Party (Soccer World Championship-Party) tomorrow and we're going. There's gonna be games and entertainment, coffee+cake, later dinner and after that public viewing of the Germany soccer match.
We've been to such events before, but they are rare, so I count it as almost new. They always have so, so many different kinds of food, normally as booths from different countries. I love trying foreign stuff, so this is right up my alley. You can have a typical Argentinian snack followed by something Hungarian, then a specialty from Switzerland and end up with a Japanese dessert for example. Yum!

The "Other" part is my usual ignoring of the solstice. ;D
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Front-Ranger on June 20, 2014, 06:19:43 pm
Yay, Chrissi! Boo, Truman...that's a GDBOAUS!!  >:(
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: brianr on June 21, 2014, 10:23:30 am
I think this is the first time I have seen the summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere. In recent years I have travelled up here in either your Spring or Fall. I am only later this year becasue I was told Glacier National Park is not fully open until late June.
I have missed the Mid-winter carnival which is great fun in Dunedin. I read the fireworks were cancelled due to high winds. However the lantern parade went ahead.
I cannot post pictures from the paper when I do not have a mouse. If you are really interested
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/306692/city-lights-midwinter-carnival (http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/306692/city-lights-midwinter-carnival)
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Sason on June 21, 2014, 03:55:12 pm
I celebrated Midsummer's night yesterday with friends the usual Swedish way. It's one of the biggest holidays of the year here.

Pickled herring, new potatoes, chives, hard boilied eggs, sour cream. Yum!  And for desert strawberries.

(http://cdn.203.se/i?u=group1%2FM00%2F01%2FE1%2FCgAIClIUJz6APDhYACouoyrIdBc306.jpg&w=640&h=480)

And schnapps!
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: brianr on June 21, 2014, 04:57:29 pm
I celebrated Midsummer's night yesterday with friends the usual Swedish way. It's one of the biggest holidays of the year here.

Pickled herring, new potatoes, chives, hard boilied eggs, sour cream. Yum!  And for desert strawberries.

(http://cdn.203.se/i?u=group1%2FM00%2F01%2FE1%2FCgAIClIUJz6APDhYACouoyrIdBc306.jpg&w=640&h=480)

And schnapps!
That looks good. Never tried pickled herring but would like to do so nor schnapps but think I would give that a miss.
I forgot to add that midsummer down in the southern hemisphere gets lost being a few days before Christmas.
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Sason on June 21, 2014, 05:05:58 pm
Yes, it's very yummy indeed, Brian.

I don't particularly care for schnapps either, but I did have a few drops yesterday.

There are an abundance of different kinds of pickled herring in Sweden, but the one that's traditional for midsummer is called matjessill, matjes (Dutch word) herring.
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Front-Ranger on June 21, 2014, 11:07:33 pm
My SS dinner was some freshly baked bread with brie and peach slices on top, followed by a hard boiled egg topped with freshly ground pepper, Celtic salt, and sumac. Yum!
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: serious crayons on June 23, 2014, 09:26:11 am
I've had a couple of really good sandwiches that incorporated brie and fig jam. One was pork roast and the other was turkey. I think there might have been some arugula or other greens in there, too.



Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Jeff Wrangler on June 23, 2014, 09:51:39 am
My SS dinner was some freshly baked bread with brie and peach slices on top, followed by a hard boiled egg topped with freshly ground pepper, Celtic salt, and sumac. Yum!

"Celtic salt"?
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Front-Ranger on June 23, 2014, 01:01:53 pm
I've had a couple of really good sandwiches that incorporated brie and fig jam. One was pork roast and the other was turkey. I think there might have been some arugula or other greens in there, too.

Wow, that is quite inspiring since I have brie AND fig jam in my fridge now. I also have a pork roast I made yesterday! And my friend insisted I pick some lettuce from her garden on Saturday! It's almost like you looked in my fridge before you wrote this!

I got the Celtic Sea Salt from Sprouts, a local health food chain. It has bits of mineral trace elements such as calcium, magnesium, etc. It's basically the same chemical makeup as table salt but without bleach or iodine. It tastes different to me too but it may be my imagination.
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Jeff Wrangler on June 23, 2014, 01:20:49 pm
But what makes it "Celtic"? Why is that any different from any other sea salt?
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Front-Ranger on June 23, 2014, 01:41:16 pm
Because it's from the North Sea, prime Celtic territory. (The Celts were prominent all over Europe at one point, but they emanated from Ireland and Scotland, where their precursors were the Picts.)
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Shakesthecoffecan on June 23, 2014, 01:47:53 pm
The best thing about the solstice this year was taking a 2.5 hour nap.
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Jeff Wrangler on June 23, 2014, 02:25:53 pm
Because it's from the North Sea, prime Celtic territory. (The Celts were prominent all over Europe at one point, but they emanated from Ireland and Scotland, where their precursors were the Picts.)

So it's just a brand name for a brand of salt from the North Sea?
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Sason on June 23, 2014, 02:54:36 pm
Since the solstice marks the longest day of the year, we all have to face the harsh truth - now the days are getting shorter again...   :(
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Sophia on June 23, 2014, 02:55:16 pm
My window.....Summer solstice in Sweden 8.45 PM June 23th.
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Sophia on June 23, 2014, 03:52:29 pm
Summer solstice 9.45 PM June 23th
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Sophia on June 23, 2014, 05:04:33 pm
At 10.45 PM June 23th 2014
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Sophia on June 23, 2014, 05:47:55 pm
Summer night 11.45 PM June 23th
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Sason on June 23, 2014, 05:52:35 pm
What a difference a couple of hundred kilometers makes. Here it's dark by now.
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: morrobay on June 23, 2014, 05:55:22 pm
Sophia, I love the pictures you posted, an hour at a time.  But I would hate it to be light at midnight, I'm afraid I'm one of the few who cannot wait for winter.
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Sophia on June 23, 2014, 06:48:54 pm
Summer night 12.45 AM June 24th 2014
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Sophia on June 23, 2014, 06:52:16 pm
What a difference a couple of hundred kilometers makes. Here it's dark by now.

Fascinating Sonja. Didn't think it would differ that much.
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Sophia on June 23, 2014, 06:54:02 pm
Sophia, I love the pictures you posted, an hour at a time.  But I would hate it to be light at midnight, I'm afraid I'm one of the few who cannot wait for winter.

Yeah, I am big fan of IKEAs dark curtains.  :)
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Sophia on June 23, 2014, 07:53:38 pm
Early morning 1.45 AM June 24th in Askersund, Sweden
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Sophia on June 23, 2014, 08:47:49 pm
This is, as dark as it get. A tuesday Morning 02.45 AM in Askersund, Sweden June 24th 2014..
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Penthesilea on June 24, 2014, 12:43:48 am
Way cool those pictures, Sophia! 8)
I just checked the distance between us. It's over 1400km, that's as far as from me to southern Italy! :o Didn't think it'd be that far. No wonder there's such a difference in daylight/darkness.

And it's almost the same distance (1350km) between you and the northern end of Sweden (Kiruna).
And I'm closer to Africa than to Kiruna. :o
Now I feel almost Mediterranean. ;) :)
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Sophia on June 24, 2014, 04:36:40 am
Way cool those pictures, Sophia! 8)
I just checked the distance between us. It's over 1400km, that's as far as from me to southern Italy! :o Didn't think it'd be that far. No wonder there's such a difference in daylight/darkness.

And it's almost the same distance (1350km) between you and the northern end of Sweden (Kiruna).
And I'm closer to Africa than to Kiruna. :o
Now I feel almost Mediterranean. ;) :)

I have always thought you where very exotic. Now I know why.  :)

Did you know it takes us exactly the same amount of time ( by air ) to travel to southern part of Italy, to travel to NY, US.
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Jeff Wrangler on June 24, 2014, 09:15:21 am
Today is June 24, St. John the Baptist Day.

Anciently, it was mistakenly thought that today was the Summer Solstice, and bonfires were lit on the eve (i.e., last night) to make sure the sun returns, even as it begins to decline, or something like that.
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Sophia on June 24, 2014, 12:10:49 pm
Today is June 24, St. John the Baptist Day.

Anciently, it was mistakenly thought that today was the Summer Solstice, and bonfires were lit on the eve (i.e., last night) to make sure the sun returns, even as it begins to decline, or something like that.

Up here in the northern part of Europe it is very difficult to tell when the longest day occur...for a couple of weeks in June the sun will shine for 24 h. We normally say that midsummer is the summer solstice. This year it occured June 20th.
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Sason on June 24, 2014, 01:57:31 pm
Fascinating Sonja. Didn't think it would differ that much.

Neither did I. After all, Askersund isn't that far away!   :)
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Sophia on June 24, 2014, 05:43:49 pm
Neither did I. After all, Askersund isn't that far away!   :)

You are proably closer to our mediterrainen girl (Penthesilea) then to me in Askersund.  :)
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Sason on June 25, 2014, 02:05:17 pm
You are proably closer to our mediterrainen girl (Penthesilea) then to me in Askersund.  :)

True.

Only the other day I met a person from Västerås who said that everything felt so much more continental here.

She was surprised to find that we usually don't care one bit about Stockholm, but instead consider Copenhagen and Berlin our closest big cities!   ;D
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Sophia on June 26, 2014, 05:30:13 pm
Another beutiful evening in June 11.00 PM Askersund, Sweden
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: CellarDweller on June 26, 2014, 06:59:46 pm
great pics, Sophia!!
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Sophia on June 27, 2014, 01:53:32 pm
True.

Only the other day I met a person from Västerås who said that everything felt so much more continental here.

She was surprised to find that we usually don't care one bit about Stockholm, but instead consider Copenhagen and Berlin our closest big cities!   ;D

Yeah I mean, why choose Stockholm? When you have two major culture cities, twice as big as Stockholm. Of course Denmark in itself has its problem but Berlin that´s a whole different story.
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Sason on June 27, 2014, 04:46:19 pm
Yeah I mean, why choose Stockholm? When you have two major culture cities, twice as big as Stockholm. Of course Denmark in itself has its problem but Berlin that´s a whole different story.

My thoughts exactly!  ;D
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Sophia on July 02, 2014, 05:08:07 pm
Another lovely sunset July 2nd 11 pm
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: serious crayons on July 03, 2014, 10:58:15 am
Yeah I mean, why choose Stockholm? When you have two major culture cities, twice as big as Stockholm. Of course Denmark in itself has its problem but Berlin that´s a whole different story.

 :)  I love hearing your perspectives. What do you mean about Denmark's problem? And why is Berlin a whole different story?

Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Sophia on July 04, 2014, 03:30:27 pm
:)  I love hearing your perspectives. What do you mean about Denmark's problem? And why is Berlin a whole different story?



If you compare Stockholm with other major cities like Copenhagen or Berlin it differ quite a lot in amount of population. So that's why Copenhagen and Berlin are more favorable. But Denmark's problem is  their view on immigration and integration. It's quite racial and anti forreign culture. That makes Copenhagen a city with with a lot of traditional structure and culture. Comparing to Berlin who has a more open minded view, on new influences. 
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: serious crayons on July 04, 2014, 11:37:09 pm
If you compare Stockholm with other major cities like Copenhagen or Berlin it differ quite a lot in amount of population. So that's why Copenhagen and Berlin are more favorable. But Denmark's problem is  their view on immigration and integration. It's quite racial and anti forreign culture. That makes Copenhagen a city with with a lot of traditional structure and culture. Comparing to Berlin who has a more open minded view, on new influences. 

Thanks for the information! I googled the population of all three and I see what you mean about the population difference between Stockholm and Berlin. The odd thing is, according to google Copenhagen is smaller than Stockholm. Must have something to do with whether they just count the city proper as opposed to the surrounding areas, or something like that.

For example Minneapolis, where I live, has a population of just under 400,000, but if you count the whole metropolitan area it's nearly 3.5 million.


Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Jeff Wrangler on June 18, 2015, 02:44:16 pm
This weekend is the summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere. After that, slowly the days will grow shorter.
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Sason on June 18, 2015, 04:28:52 pm
In Sweden Midsummer is one of the most important holidays of the year.

If possible, it's celebrated in nature at someone's summer house or cabin.

Here's a video of the celebrations (only slightly exaggerated  ::))


[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVwKLjdKV8w&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Sason on June 18, 2015, 04:33:20 pm
And one more, somewhat more reliable (but not entirely):


[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8ZLpGOOA1Q[/youtube]
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: CellarDweller on June 19, 2015, 08:40:23 am
Happy summer solstice.  Now, it's all downhill to winter!

:laugh:
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Sason on June 19, 2015, 12:43:15 pm
Thank you so much for those uplifting words, Chuck!   ::)
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: CellarDweller on June 19, 2015, 02:32:41 pm
anytime!  ;)  :laugh:
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Sason on June 19, 2015, 02:45:18 pm
 ;)
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Front-Ranger on June 19, 2015, 06:29:25 pm
Once again, I'm being a contrarian. I love nights...cozy winter nights, ice clear fall evenings, misty spring nights, and especially the "black sacred night" of summer, as Louis Armstrong called it in Wonderful World. I am not a big fan of being woken by a glow in the East and birds chirping when it's not even 5 o'clock in the morning! So, I'm happy to see and celebrate the Solstice. Yippee!
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Front-Ranger on June 20, 2015, 12:04:46 am
Here in the Rocky Mountains, the festivities are just starting!!
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: brianr on June 20, 2015, 02:45:54 pm
I went to the Mid winter festival in Dunedin last night. Unfortunately the procession started a bit late so I could not stay for the fireworks as my bus only runs once per hour and I did not fancy sitting around in the cold waiting for the next one. Sunset was 5pm and sunrise will be 8.21am this morning. Last night was fine but snow is forecast for tonight. However there was  big dump of snow inland a few days ago but we got nothing.
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: CellarDweller on June 20, 2015, 06:11:48 pm
Once again, I'm being a contrarian. I love nights...cozy winter nights, ice clear fall evenings, misty spring nights, and especially the "black sacred night" of summer, as Louis Armstrong called it in Wonderful World. I am not a big fan of being woken by a glow in the East and birds chirping when it's not even 5 o'clock in the morning! So, I'm happy to see and celebrate the Solstice. Yippee!

Yeah, nights are cool, aren't they?
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: CellarDweller on June 20, 2015, 06:17:37 pm
I went to the Mid winter festival in Dunedin last night. Unfortunately the procession started a bit late so I could not stay for the fireworks as my bus only runs once per hour and I did not fancy sitting around in the cold waiting for the next one. Sunset was 5pm and sunrise will be 8.21am this morning. Last night was fine but snow is forecast for tonight. However there was  big dump of snow inland a few days ago but we got nothing.

Oh yeah,  I keep forgetting you guys are into winter.  Glad you had a good night.
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Jeff Wrangler on June 24, 2015, 09:32:26 am
Happy St.-Jean-Baptiste Day!

I understand that once upon a time, it was thought that today was the summer solstice. Apparently when Julius Caesar's astrologers/astronomers revised the old Roman calendar, to create what we now call the Julian Calendar, they weren't as smart as Caesar thought they were, and they miscalculated the dates of the solstices and the equinoxes. This is why early Christianity decided to celebrate the birth of John the Baptist on this date; the Church thought it was opposing a Christian celebration to the old pagan solstice celebration.

Caesar's guys should have visited Stonehenge. Apparently the builders of Stonehenge got it right.
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Front-Ranger on June 28, 2015, 10:07:43 am
I don't have any problem with the summer solstice or this time being called midsummer (or midsommer). But I do have a problem with people talking about "late summer" now. Heavens, June isn't even over yet!
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: serious crayons on June 28, 2015, 11:10:11 am
the Church thought it was opposing a Christian celebration to the old pagan solstice celebration.

Similar to why we celebrate Jesus' birthday on December 25!

Wow, the church was so judgmental in them days it didn't even approve of celebrating celestial events.


Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Jeff Wrangler on June 07, 2016, 04:36:39 pm
The summer solstice is fast approaching. Its arrival always makes me feel just a little bit sad, because I know that then the days will slowly but surely begin to get shorter.

I like this time of year when we have hours and hours of daylight.  :)
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: CellarDweller on June 08, 2016, 08:47:20 am
Yeah, much lighter much later.

and then it's all down hill.  lol
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: CellarDweller on June 19, 2016, 08:34:57 pm
(http://kardsunlimited.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/SummerSolstice.png)
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: CellarDweller on June 19, 2016, 08:36:16 pm
(https://www.toperfect.com/pic/Oil%20Painting%20Styles%20on%20Canvas/Fantasy/Witch/4-witch-casting-spell.jpg)
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Jeff Wrangler on June 19, 2016, 10:32:34 pm
I won't be doing anything in particular to celebrate the solstice--at least, I haven't any plans for anything. But in the 20 years I've lived in my high-rise home on the grid pattern of Philadelphia streets, I've learned to enjoy watching the apparent movement of the sun north and south along the horizon. I mean, at this time of the year, the sun appears to rise farther north than my building, which is located on an east-west street. As the season advances from now toward the autumnal equinox and then the winter solstice, eventually the sun will appear to rise directly opposite the window in the end of the hallway on my floor. Then sunrise will continue to move farther and farther south till I can actually see it from my windows. By the same token, right now sunset is farther north than my building. By October, after the autumnal equinox, I will be able to see sunset from windows.
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Jeff Wrangler on June 24, 2016, 09:17:54 am
If any of our Canadian friends check in anymore, Happy St.-Jean-Baptiste Day!  :)
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: CellarDweller on June 24, 2016, 10:12:27 am
and now....on to the Winter Solstice.


LOL
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Jeff Wrangler on June 24, 2016, 01:32:44 pm
This morning I checked my almanac. On Sunday we will have one minute less of daylight than we did last Sunday.
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Sason on June 27, 2016, 11:25:52 am
and now....on to the Winter Solstice.


LOL

Thank you for those encouraging words, Chuck!  NOT!!!
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Front-Ranger on May 01, 2017, 12:46:53 pm

"Happy tussling" is how one celebrates Beltane.  One celebrates the Solstice with a great big bonfire.  8)

Well, it's now Beltane, so let's get tussling!
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Jeff Wrangler on May 01, 2017, 01:18:43 pm
Well, it's now Beltane, so let's get tussling!

It takes at least two to tussle.  8)
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Front-Ranger on May 01, 2017, 02:35:31 pm
I have a similar problem, friend. I might end up tussling with my cat.
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: CellarDweller on May 01, 2017, 07:21:46 pm
Why must we tussle?   How about we hustle?



(http://idance-nyc.com/uploads/0304-12.jpg)
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Jeff Wrangler on June 08, 2017, 09:11:52 am
Once again the summer solstice is fast approaching.

Anybody going to light a bonfire for Midsummer Day?
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: CellarDweller on June 08, 2017, 07:00:18 pm
I'll be celebrating that each day after is a little shorter, until fall comes!  :)
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Front-Ranger on June 08, 2017, 11:43:37 pm
And, to get ready for the Solstice, we can celebrate the full Strawberry Moon, occurring right now!

"The moon in June is a big balloon, It'll make you smile, it'll make you swoon,
It's heaven, being on the moon...
La da da, Da da da, Di di di doo...."

Anybody know the rest of the lyrics?
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: CellarDweller on June 09, 2017, 10:11:06 pm
by the light, of the Strawberry moon
(not the sun, but the moon)
my heart did swoon

:laugh:
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Front-Ranger on June 17, 2017, 11:17:33 am
So, for some of us, the Solstice will come Tuesday the 20th rather than Wednesday. I'll be in Portland, OR, that day, so I'll be celebrating at 9:24 pm on Tuesday!
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: CellarDweller on June 19, 2017, 10:11:30 pm
it's upon us.
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Jeff Wrangler on June 20, 2017, 09:42:28 am
So, for some of us, the Solstice will come Tuesday the 20th rather than Wednesday. I'll be in Portland, OR, that day, so I'll be celebrating at 9:24 pm on Tuesday!

The 2017 summer solstice occurs June 21 at 04:24 GMT.
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: brianr on June 20, 2017, 11:37:14 am
I guess I am having the longest summer solstice here in Anchorage, Alaska. Sunrise was at 4.20am and sunset is at 11.41pm. However it is raining and only 11'C (51'F) at 7.30am so does not feel like summer. I will have longer days later in the week when I go to Denali and Fairbanks.
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Front-Ranger on June 21, 2017, 11:06:43 am
I hope it was very memorable, brian! I'm in Portland Oregon and the solstice was noticeably longer up here, too. We had just concluded a talk to the Rock Garden Society and everyone was standing around oohing and ahhing about the plants they had brought for "show and tell". What a great ritual.
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: serious crayons on June 21, 2017, 11:25:35 am
I would love to spend it eating cold crawfish and drinking shots of icy vodka, as I've heard they do in Norway on Midsummer Night.

Any Norwegians reading this? Can you confirm?

I heard this when working in New Orleans on a story about how the Chinese were trying to underprice and take over the crawfish market, an important industry in Louisiana, where crawfish are hugely popular. They're usually served hot there, boiled with spices and lemons and the occasional chunk of potato or corn.

But I can see eating them cold, with vodka, being a nice way to spend this long bright evening.


Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: CellarDweller on July 01, 2017, 11:28:40 am
I just simply stayed at home, and relaxed for the evening.
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Jeff Wrangler on June 16, 2019, 08:27:09 pm
The summer solstice is this coming Friday, June 21. I've heard two reports that the solstice occurs shortly before noon.

Another TV news anchor person remarked that after the summer solstice, the days will slowly begin to grow shorter.
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: CellarDweller on June 18, 2019, 07:18:37 pm
I'll be at work, and thinking about the days getting shorter, as we slide down to autumn.
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Jeff Wrangler on June 19, 2019, 08:44:20 am
I'll be at work, and thinking about the days getting shorter, as we slide down to autumn.

I keep hearing on TV news that the solstice is shortly before noon (or something like that), so I'll be at work, too, for the momentous moment. I will be sad to think of the days growing inexorably shorter, and think how fast time seems to be passing. I will, however, remember how much I love fall, and hope I will be able to travel this fall. I will raise a glass of scotch to the occasion. (I do that every Friday night, but never mind!)
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: serious crayons on June 19, 2019, 09:30:53 am
I'm invited to a post-solstice party Saturday night. But I don't think I'll know anyone there except the hosts, so I'll probably skip it.

I used to love fall but now I don't.


Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Jeff Wrangler on June 19, 2019, 12:12:19 pm
I'm invited to a post-solstice party Saturday night. But I don't think I'll know anyone there except the hosts, so I'll probably skip it.

I used to love fall but now I don't.

Good idea for a party, though.
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: serious crayons on June 20, 2019, 08:47:42 am
Good idea for a party, though.

Agreed!

Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Front-Ranger on June 21, 2019, 03:00:44 pm
My permaculture besties and I are getting together and we've actually hired a shaman to do a ritual! There was a panic because we were going to meet at a farm but severe thunderstorms are forecast, so I switched the venue to the meeting room of a library. Whew!!  :P
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Front-Ranger on June 21, 2019, 03:01:17 pm
I'll be at work, and thinking about the days getting shorter, as we slide down to autumn.

What? This is the first day of summer!!
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: brianr on June 21, 2019, 03:32:28 pm
Weather permitting I will be rugging up and going to the Mid-Winter Carnival this evening, a lantern procession and street food stalls. Next week 25th is Matariki, the beginning of the Maori New Year. Matariki is the Maori name for the Pleiades constellation. I picked up a brochure at the library yesterday. There is a free breakfast in the Primary school opposite my house next Friday, I will think about that. Good that days will get longer sunrise at 8.20am today and sunset at 5pm but we have not had much winter yet. Snow fell last Monday but it did not settle.
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Jeff Wrangler on June 21, 2019, 04:20:16 pm
What? This is the first day of summer!!

Didn't you used to call it Midsummer Day?
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: serious crayons on June 22, 2019, 08:23:25 am
Didn't you used to call it Midsummer Day?

That makes more sense. The longest day of the year should be the middle of the season of long days, not at the beginning. The calendar seasons have always seemed odd that way, with their first days, rather than their midpoints, designated by equinoxes and solstices. They don't even quite match the weather, as it usually feels like the season has started well before the season actually starts.

Still, I'm glad summer isn't half over!



Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: brianr on June 22, 2019, 03:15:13 pm
In the southern hemisphere, well at least Australia/NZ not sure about Africa and South America, the official start of the season is the June 1, September 1, December 1 and March 1. However the solstice cannot be the middle of the season as the ground takes longer to warm/cool than the air.  That is why the hottest part of the day is after the sun reaches the zenith (midday but probably later due to DLS) and begins to go down in the sky. It snowed here last Monday but melted almost as soon as it hit the ground. We had not had any frosts. We had light frosts on Wednesday and Thursday (heavier down in the valley below). May be this morning, still too dark to see. So if it snows next week (none forecast) there is more chance of it settling. July/August are our colder months but we can have snow into November.
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: brianr on June 22, 2019, 03:22:37 pm
I went to the Mid-Winter Carnival.
https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/thousands-turn-out-midwinter-carnival
Disappointing, rarely see anyone I know. All my friends, being in their 60/70s prefer to stay warm at home. They all marvel at how little clothes I wear in winter compare to them. I much prefer cold weather to hot.
I was pruning in the garden and left it too late to get ready but made the mistake of ordering a hamburger from a caravan and it took over 20 minutes to make. I missed seeing half the procession. Not happy. Did watch the fireworks afterwards.
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: serious crayons on June 23, 2019, 11:53:09 am
In the southern hemisphere, well at least Australia/NZ not sure about Africa and South America, the official start of the season is the June 1, September 1, December 1 and March 1.

Very sensible times. That's basically how they go here, whatever the calendar says. Schools let out sometime around June 1, give or take, because it's summer. Sometime around Sept. 1, lifeguards leave the beaches, school starts again, and the earlier sunsets and cooler air are abruptly so noticeable it sometimes feels like somebody flipped a switch. Winter starts around Dec. 1 because that's when it tends to get cold-cold, with snow, and holiday shopping has begun. And March 1 only occasionally feels springlike, but at least by then you can expect it any day and a heavy snowfall seems less dire because you know it will melt soon.

Are your cultural/meteorological cues similar but opposite?



 
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Jeff Wrangler on June 23, 2019, 04:03:23 pm
Very sensible times. That's basically how they go here, whatever the calendar says. Schools let out sometime around June 1, give or take, because it's summer. Sometime around Sept. 1, lifeguards leave the beaches, school starts again, and the earlier sunsets and cooler air are abruptly so noticeable it sometimes feels like somebody flipped a switch. Winter starts around Dec. 1 because that's when it tends to get cold-cold, with snow, and holiday shopping has begun. And March 1 only occasionally feels springlike, but at least by then you can expect it any day and a heavy snowfall seems less dire because you know it will melt soon.

Are your cultural/meteorological cues similar but opposite?

Reminds me that one of our local TV meteorologists has spoken several time of "meteorological seasons." Apparently for whatever reason, meteorologists think of seasons by the calendar months. Winter is December, January, and February,;spring is March, April, and May; summer is June, July, and August; and fall is September, October, and November.
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: brianr on June 23, 2019, 04:26:13 pm
Reminds me that one of our local TV meteorologists has spoken several time of "meteorological seasons." Apparently for whatever reason, meteorologists think of seasons by the calendar months. Winter is December, January, and February,;spring is March, April, and May; summer is June, July, and August; and fall is September, October, and November.
That is what is officially accepted here, newspaper and TV news will say on June 1. "Today is the first day of winter."  In fact this year there was a lot of comment about Winter coming right on time. May 30 was max temp 15'C and I do not think there had been a day when it did not reach 14'C through all of May. Then on May 31 the max was 9'C and June 1st, max 7'C.
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: brianr on June 23, 2019, 04:34:09 pm
Very sensible times. That's basically how they go here, whatever the calendar says. Schools let out sometime around June 1, give or take, because it's summer. Sometime around Sept. 1, lifeguards leave the beaches, school starts again, and the earlier sunsets and cooler air are abruptly so noticeable it sometimes feels like somebody flipped a switch. Winter starts around Dec. 1 because that's when it tends to get cold-cold, with snow, and holiday shopping has begun. And March 1 only occasionally feels springlike, but at least by then you can expect it any day and a heavy snowfall seems less dire because you know it will melt soon.

Are your cultural/meteorological cues similar but opposite?
I guess similar School summer holidays generally start the week before Christmas but ours are not as long as yours. They generally return to school at the end of January. In Australia it is January 27/28 as January 26 is Australia day public holiday. I think NZ is similar. Our National day is Feb 6 but schools return before then.  Lifeguards usually leave after the Easter 4 day weekend. September 1 is definitely spring in Australia but not here in NZ. As in my last post, this year May was surprisingly warm for the last month of Autumn. In my 10 years here I have known a snowfall in April but the first snowfall this year was June 17.
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Jeff Wrangler on June 24, 2019, 09:16:49 am
Very sensible times. That's basically how they go here, whatever the calendar says. Schools let out sometime around June 1, give or take, because it's summer. Sometime around Sept. 1, lifeguards leave the beaches, school starts again, and the earlier sunsets and cooler air are abruptly so noticeable it sometimes feels like somebody flipped a switch. Winter starts around Dec. 1 because that's when it tends to get cold-cold, with snow, and holiday shopping has begun. And March 1 only occasionally feels springlike, but at least by then you can expect it any day and a heavy snowfall seems less dire because you know it will melt soon.

Are your cultural/meteorological cues similar but opposite?

"In my day," the schools in the region where I grew up did not open until after Labor Day (first Monday in September in the U.S.), sometimes the very next day. It came as a shock to me when I was in graduate school to learn that schools in Tidewater Virginia opened about the middle of August. On the other end of the school year, summer vacation didn't begin until later in June; I distinctly remember still being in elementary school for Flag Day (June 14). Of course, "back then," my local public schools had a holiday on Good Friday, and sometimes but not always (if I remember correctly) Easter Monday. Those days are gone.

Meanwhile, I sure I read somewhere that the idea of the day of the summer solstice being Midsummer Day was connected to a conception of the year as having only two seasons, winter and summer, but I have been unable to find the reference.  >:(
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: serious crayons on June 24, 2019, 12:31:22 pm
Reminds me that one of our local TV meteorologists has spoken several time of "meteorological seasons." Apparently for whatever reason, meteorologists think of seasons by the calendar months. Winter is December, January, and February,;spring is March, April, and May; summer is June, July, and August; and fall is September, October, and November.

I think most people do. If the weather has been warm or hot, flowers are blooming, garden vegetables producing, they've been to the beach, etc., they don't, on June 21, say, "Ah, summer is here at last!" and they don't say "finally, fall has begun!" if they've been crunching through red and gold leaves for the past few weeks.
 
In New Orleans, it's summery hot through September and trees don't turn colors or lose their leaves, so I guess there the 23rd makes a little more sense.

That is what is officially accepted here, newspaper and TV news will say on June 1. "Today is the first day of winter."  In fact this year there was a lot of comment about Winter coming right on time. May 30 was max temp 15'C and I do not think there had been a day when it did not reach 14'C through all of May. Then on May 31 the max was 9'C and June 1st, max 7'C.

In your post, I had to stop and translate each of the temps into F, then would get thrown by the upside-down seasons. When I saw you say May was in the 60s I thought, brrr, that IS cold for May, but then of course I realized you were saying it was WARM for May and had to remind myself that your May is the opposite of my May.  :laugh:

It must have been hard to teach natural science if you had to constantly go through all of those calculations!  :laugh: :laugh:

Our winter started extremely late, too. In December and January it was above 0'C most days. It would dip below 0'C at night, so lakes froze to a heavy but clear ice, easily thick enough to hold a person in most places, smooth on top because it would melt and refreeze every day. So people were ice skating like crazy. People who hadn't skated in years were buying or renting skates and lacing them on. On one big lake near here that has multiple cities on its shores, they were ice skating across the lake for lunch or a beer or to go to a movie!

Then at the very end of January the temperature plunged well into the double-digit below 0'C. One day the high was minus 25'C. And in February, the snowfall not only broke the all time record -- it broke the record by more than a third of a meter. So the whole winter was weird.

I wrote a few weather stories for the newspaper so I talked to meteorologists a lot. One said our winters are warming much faster than our summers. By about half a degree C a decade, which didn't sound too drastic to me -- and if anything it's welcome since I hate cold weather -- but apparently it's actually pretty dire and catastrophic.


"In my day," the schools in the region where I grew up did not open until after Labor Day (first Monday in September in the U.S.), sometimes the very next day.

In my day, too. I guess originally it had something to do with the planting season, having kids home to help with the farm, but even that seems odd because harvesting goes well into September.

Then for a while I suppose it was because schools lacked air conditioning, and also that waiting until after the holiday helped protect resorts and tourism -- obviously lots of families liked taking trips around Labor Day (first Monday in September, Brian) to get the extra day off. So for a long time the state required schools to wait until after the holiday. Then at some point that law was lifted and schools started opening the week before Labor Day or even into late August, which I find abhorrent. The classrooms are still hot because many schools still don't have AC. The start of school is also a really strong cultural/psychological signal of the beginning of fall. Let's not make fall come any earlier than it has to, Legislature.

Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Front-Ranger on June 24, 2019, 01:22:01 pm
Here in Colorado, school starts in early to mid-August! for Pete's sake. But there's a break in October for a few days. It was set by the teacher's union. Also, school is not out until the first week of June, not before Memorial Day as it was when I was in school.

The weather here has been crazy wet and cool. A measure of summer is when Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mtn. National Park opens. They almost made the Memorial Day traditional start time with snowplows working overtime. But then they had to close down the road last week (mid-June!) because of more new snow.

I'm getting a little worried about taking off for Wyoming this Thursday. Might have to put chains on the Crimson Chariot. . .that's what I call my car.
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Jeff Wrangler on June 24, 2019, 01:49:13 pm
Then for a while I suppose it was because schools lacked air conditioning, and also that waiting until after the holiday helped protect resorts and tourism -- obviously lots of families liked taking trips around Labor Day (first Monday in September, Brian) to get the extra day off. So for a long time the state required schools to wait until after the holiday. Then at some point that law was lifted and schools started opening the week before Labor Day or even into late August, which I find abhorrent. The classrooms are still hot because many schools still don't have AC. The start of school is also a really strong cultural/psychological signal of the beginning of fall. Let's not make fall come any earlier than it has to, Legislature.

In Pennsylvania it can be beastly hot in September. I remember once when I was in junior high school, and I was a very overweight kid, it was so hot in school that I arrived home clearly suffering from heat exhaustion. My mother had me sit in a bathtub of tepid water till I cooled down.

Not only do schools lack air conditioning, or even fans, they also lack even cross ventilation because, of course, one of wall a classroom is windows, but the other is a solid wall.
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: serious crayons on June 24, 2019, 04:06:41 pm
Here in Colorado, school starts in early to mid-August! for Pete's sake. But there's a break in October for a few days. It was set by the teacher's union.

We have that, too. It's called MEA, for Minnesota Education Association, which holds its convention then. We have had that since I was in elementary school, and probably long before. It's taken on a life of its own as a holiday because it's usually like Wednesday through Friday. So people with kids plan trips out of town "during MEA."


I was a very overweight kid

 :o :o I didn't know that.

In 13 f'in years I don't believe I've seen you mention it (not that I've read every single post you've ever written, of course).

Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Jeff Wrangler on June 24, 2019, 04:37:44 pm
I was a very overweight kid.

:o :o I didn't know that.

In 13 f'in years I don't believe I've seen you mention it (not that I've read every single post you've ever written, of course).

Yes, I was, and here's the weird thing. There is a stereotype of people gaining "the Freshman ten" pounds when they go off to college. Instead, I lost weight, a lot of weight. But it's all come back in, oh, about 40 years.  ;D
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: brianr on June 24, 2019, 04:46:21 pm
It always amazes me that the USA, being so much more religious than Australia or NZ does not have Good Friday as a public holiday. Over here no business or supermarkets are allowed to open. In Dunedin there is no pubic transport. Only small family businesses and petrol stations operate. Easter Sunday is similar but not so restrictive. Last year a law was passed in parliament allowing city councils to decide about businesses operating on Easter Sunday. Dunedin voted to remain closed. The only other similar days are Christmas day and the morning of Anzac day. I would have been horrified if expected to teach on Good Friday.

Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Jeff Wrangler on June 24, 2019, 06:16:28 pm
It always amazes me that the USA, being so much more religious than Australia or NZ does not have Good Friday as a public holiday. Over here no business or supermarkets are allowed to open. In Dunedin there is no pubic transport. Only small family businesses and petrol stations operate. Easter Sunday is similar but not so restrictive. Last year a law was passed in parliament allowing city councils to decide about businesses operating on Easter Sunday. Dunedin voted to remain closed. The only other similar days are Christmas day and the morning of Anzac day. I would have been horrified if expected to teach on Good Friday.

I guess the cultural imperative to have Christmas as a holiday is so strong as to override other concerns. I have no idea why the change in status of Good Friday was made. I know only the situation where grew I was raised. The US may be a great deal more religious than Australia and New Zealand, but perhaps somebody decided that having Good Friday as a holiday amounted to an unconstitutional favoring of one religion--Christianity--over others. Nobody so far as I know has ever had a holiday for the Jewish High Holy Days, for example.

Of course Easter Sunday isn't an issue because it's always a weekend.

It continues to surprise me that we do not have a holiday for Veterans Day (Nov. 11). Government offices are closed, mail is not delivered, and, at least in Pennsylvania, liquor stores are closed, but for the rest of us, it's business as usual.
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: serious crayons on June 24, 2019, 06:52:54 pm
It always amazes me that the USA, being so much more religious than Australia or NZ does not have Good Friday as a public holiday. Over here no business or supermarkets are allowed to open. In Dunedin there is no pubic transport. Only small family businesses and petrol stations operate. Easter Sunday is similar but not so restrictive. Last year a law was passed in parliament allowing city councils to decide about businesses operating on Easter Sunday. Dunedin voted to remain closed. The only other similar days are Christmas day and the morning of Anzac day. I would have been horrified if expected to teach on Good Friday.

I think it's as simple as the separation of church and state commanded by the First Amendment to the Constitution. Not only can they not declare a religious holiday a legal holiday but they can't put a soldier's memorial in a public park. That happened in a rural town of 7,000 that I covered for the newspaper. They let a veterans' group put up a little memorial and it was of a soldier kneeling at a grave, and the sculpture had a big cross on it.

Someone on the city council thought that might be seen as mingling church and state, so they removed the memorial. Then protesters picketed the decision and filled the town with Popsicle-stick crosses. So the city put the monument back.

Then the Satanic Temple got involved. They insisted on being able to put up a monument of their own. So the city declared a small portion of the park a place for rotating memorials that would stand for a few months apiece. The city said OK to the Satanists, which then of course led to more local protests. So the city council killed the whole idea. So -- and this is where I came in to report the story -- the Satanic Temple was suing the city for reneging on its promise, because they'd already constructed the memorial.

When first assigned this story I said I thought there's no such thing as real Satanists, that nobody sincerely worships a figure of evil, that people who call themselves Satanists were poseurs who want to be scary and contrarian like the band Black Sabbath or something. Well, turns out I was partly right, except that the Satanic Temple itself doesn't seriously claim to worship or even believe in any non-scientifically-provable figures, such as Satan. Their whole purpose is to combat mingling of church and state, as they explain on their website and as I heard when I talked to the co-founder on the phone.

Basically they're the ACLU with a more provocative and attention-grabbing approach. The Temple is based in NYC and is subject of a recent documentary. The monument they made to put in the small town was, I thought, tasteful: a black stone cube etched with a pentagram and topped with an upside-down soldier's helmet.

This little town was literally the first place they would have ever put a monument of any kind. But while the city wavered back and forth they got in a similar spat in Chicago and in that case their monument was a giant sculpture of a goat-headed man. Maybe some of you know who this figure is -- something that starts with B, I believe. Far less tasteful than the other one, IMO.

Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Front-Ranger on June 24, 2019, 09:37:02 pm
Bacchus?
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Jeff Wrangler on June 25, 2019, 02:25:04 pm
Bacchus?

Doesn't sound right, not for a man with a head of a goat.

Testimony in witch trials (and we know how reliable that is) sometimes includes descriptions of the devil appearing in the shape of a goat.

Satyrs have goats' legs and horns, and they are not nice people generally.
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Sason on June 26, 2019, 03:55:25 pm
Maybe Belsebub.

I hope the Church of the flying spaghetti monster is allowed to put up a monument somewhere.
Maybe a nice stone with a giant golden colander on top?  8) ;D
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Jeff Wrangler on June 26, 2019, 06:39:54 pm
Maybe Belsebub.

I thought of that, but he is sometimes referred to as "Prince of Flies," so a goat head didn't seem right.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beelzebub (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beelzebub)
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Sason on June 27, 2019, 06:40:11 pm
Ah, ok.

Then I don't know.

My list of potential Satanic figures is very short  ;D
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: serious crayons on June 28, 2019, 09:25:13 am
Here is the entirety of an unsigned email I received the day after the story ran:

Um...the "goat headed creature" is called Baphomet,  which I'm sure you know, yet you wouldn't call it what it is. It is both male and female.  Why don't you write an article on that?

I didn't reply, but if I had I would have written, "Um ... because, no, I actually didn't know that and had never heard of this character and because the incident happened in Chicago and was an extremely minor point in the story and most readers don't care but if they do want to brush up on their Satanic figures that's what the internet is for."


Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Jeff Wrangler on June 28, 2019, 01:43:18 pm
Now that you mention it, I have heard that name, but I guess Beelzebub is more widely known. Maybe he's got a better publicist.  ;D
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: serious crayons on June 28, 2019, 01:51:25 pm
Now that you mention it, I have heard that name, but I guess Beelzebub is more widely known. Maybe he's got a better publicist.  ;D

 :laugh:  Definitely so, if my correspondent's email is any reflection of Baphomet's publicity manager.

Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: CellarDweller on June 07, 2021, 08:34:03 pm
We're coming up on the Summer Solstice.   This year it's June 20th at 11:32pm.  Same day as Father's Day.
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: CellarDweller on June 20, 2021, 09:21:46 pm
(https://lisalunney.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/img_6144.png)
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Jeff Wrangler on June 21, 2021, 09:21:39 am
Prepare the bonfire for Midsummer Day.
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Jeff Wrangler on June 24, 2021, 11:01:58 am
Well, today is a notable day. It's Midsummer Day, to our Canadian Brokies it's St. Jean-Baptiste Day--and the moon is full!
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Sason on June 24, 2021, 12:53:35 pm
Here in Sweden Midsummer Day is always moved to the nearest weekend and celebrated primarily on the eve, i.e tomorrow Friday.
It's a major holiday here, celebrated, if possible, in the outdoors. In a summerhouse, campingsite, garden community, in the country or similar.

People dance around the midsummer pole, after having decorated it with leaves and flowers.

After that comes the traditional food: (Paul, avert your eyes) herring, sour cream, hardboiled eggs, new potatoes, chives,
schnapps. Followed by strawberry cake. And more schnapps. And beer.

Then comes the games: sack-race, running with a spoon in your mouth with an egg on, tying one person's left foot to another's right foot and let them race against another pair and so on. The more schnapps people have had, the more fun they have.

After that the children are put to bed and the adults get serious about the schnapps and beer. If the celebration takes place near a lake or sea, it's now time for skinny dipping. Of course followed by some schnapps and beer.

After all this, some of those who are still awake will go to a more or less secluded place and do their best to make sure there will be one more celebrant next year.  ::)
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Sason on June 24, 2021, 01:12:26 pm
(http://www.hallekis.com/xx120622-midsommar.jpg)


(https://vivavinomat.se/wp-content/uploads/Midsommargott_med_%E2%80%9Dvegetarisk-inlagd-sill%E2%80%9D_matjessillro%CC%88ra_och_ro%CC%88kt_laxro%CC%88ralowres_web_1-vitt_vivino_20033123868_liggande-800x600.jpg)


(http://cdn3.cdnme.se/cdn/6-2/1423836/images/2011/066_149461174.jpg)


(http://lisasrecept.se/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/IMG_3441_webb.jpg)


(https://svd.vgc.no/v2/images/9d65a701-7171-4761-965a-f5af1a4e80f9?fit=crop&h=427&q=80&upscale=true&w=640&s=a87955aa1e4139881741cf0e7eccb844d929e9cf)

(https://spiritsnews.se/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/snaps-kraftor.jpg)

(https://static-cdn.sr.se/images/160/3536946_2048_1152.jpg?preset=1024x576)

Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Jeff Wrangler on June 24, 2021, 02:52:53 pm
People dance around the midsummer pole, after having decorated it with leaves and flowers.

I would dance around a midsummer pole, too, if I had one, with a crown of leaves and flowers.  ;D

Quote
Then comes the games: sack-race, running with a spoon in your mouth with an egg on, tying one person's left foot to another's right foot and let them race against another pair and so on. The more schnapps people have had, the more fun they have.

We call that a three-legged race, but I don't know if anyone does that anymore.


Quote
After all this, some of those who are still awake will go to a more or less secluded place and do their best to make sure there will be one more celebrant next year.  ::)

All pagan festivals seem to be an occasion for sex. (But who needs a special occasion for that?  ;D )

That strawberry cake looks really good! Of course, this time of year, we have strawberry shortcake.
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Sason on June 24, 2021, 03:48:58 pm
Jeff, you're welcome here any midsummer eve to take part in the festivities!  ;D
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: serious crayons on June 24, 2021, 05:10:48 pm
Is it sometimes like the 2019 film Midsommar?

My son said he took a date to that movie and immediately deeply regretted it.

Here's the IMDb description:  "A couple travels to Scandinavia to visit a rural hometown's fabled Swedish mid-summer festival. What begins as an idyllic retreat quickly devolves into an increasingly violent and bizarre competition at the hands of a pagan cult."

Actually it sounds charming and now I'm hungry for herring.



Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Sason on June 24, 2021, 06:08:04 pm
I haven't seen the movie, but I read the reviews at the time.

It didn't convey the true midsummer celebration, according to them.

There's usually not much violence, and no bizarre competitions. (other than the three-legged race of course  ;D)

And yes, herring is awesome!
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: CellarDweller on June 24, 2021, 06:33:35 pm
There's usually not much violence,

Not exactly a welcoming description.  :laugh:
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: serious crayons on June 24, 2021, 11:24:11 pm
No violence or weird competitions? In the United States that would hardly qualify as a holiday!  :laugh:

Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Jeff Wrangler on June 25, 2021, 08:35:09 am
Running with a spoon in your mouth with an egg balanced on it seems a little weird to me.
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: serious crayons on June 25, 2021, 01:35:51 pm
And though not usually violent, potentially injurious!I think the poll above needs a few more options.
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Sason on June 25, 2021, 06:42:20 pm
Not exactly a welcoming description.  :laugh:

No worries Chuck!

If you come for a visit on Midsummer, I'll protect you!
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Sason on June 25, 2021, 06:42:46 pm
No violence or weird competitions? In the United States that would hardly qualify as a holiday!  :laugh:

 :laugh:
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Sason on June 25, 2021, 06:43:42 pm
Running with a spoon in your mouth with an egg balanced on it seems a little weird to me.

That's how the eggs feel too.  ;D
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: CellarDweller on June 25, 2021, 08:43:07 pm
No worries Chuck!

If you come for a visit on Midsummer, I'll protect you!


Yeah, that's not a help.  :laugh:
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Jeff Wrangler on June 26, 2021, 11:26:27 am
The moon was most intriguing last night. It was a day after Full Moon, and its position in the sky gave me a good view. It was around 10 p.m. or so that I stepped out on my balcony. The moon was not yet far above the eastern horizon, it still looked full--and it was orange as a pumpkin It was almost spooky.
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: CellarDweller on June 04, 2022, 09:44:18 am
Bumping up this thread,  Solstice will be here in just 17 days.
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: serious crayons on June 04, 2022, 11:10:11 am
Bumping up this thread,  Solstice will be here in just 17 days.

Nooooooooooo!!!!!!!  :o >:( :-\ :'(
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Jeff Wrangler on June 04, 2022, 01:55:56 pm
I have a dentist appointment.  :laugh:
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: CellarDweller on June 20, 2022, 07:18:29 pm
Tomorrow is the Summer Solstice, longest day of the year.

;D

and then the slide to Autumn starts. 
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Jeff Wrangler on June 21, 2022, 12:44:40 pm
Tomorrow is the Summer Solstice, longest day of the year.

Today is the day. Time to light a bonfire on a hilltop, or something.
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: serious crayons on June 21, 2022, 03:56:02 pm
Chrissi and I always celebrate Longerdays on December 22. Now I guess to be fair we'd give a nod to Shorterdays -- but that's nothing to celebrate.
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: CellarDweller on June 21, 2022, 06:12:06 pm
Chrissi and I always celebrate Longerdays on December 22. Now I guess to be fair we'd give a nod to Shorterdays -- but that's nothing to celebrate.

speak for yourself!  :laugh:
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Jeff Wrangler on June 21, 2022, 09:30:39 pm
speak for yourself!  :laugh:

The way you like short, dark days, one would almost assume you sleep in a coffin. ...
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: CellarDweller on June 22, 2022, 12:43:43 pm
The way you like short, dark days, one would almost assume you sleep in a coffin. ...


(https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/k463/dcfmod/avatarpic.jpg)
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Jeff Wrangler on June 22, 2022, 01:03:23 pm
Dude, you need a better dentist. ...  ;D
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: CellarDweller on June 22, 2022, 02:15:13 pm
:laugh:

that's the best my poor paint skills could do with fangs.
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Jeff Wrangler on June 22, 2022, 02:18:22 pm
:laugh:

that's the best my poor paint skills could do with fangs.

Actually, I think you did a pretty good job of it.  :)
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: CellarDweller on June 22, 2022, 02:41:04 pm
Actually, I think you did a pretty good job of it.  :)

Hey Jeff, how's this?  :laugh:


(https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/k463/dcfmod/vampire.jpg)
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Jeff Wrangler on June 22, 2022, 08:26:27 pm
Hey Jeff, how's this?  :laugh:


(https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/k463/dcfmod/vampire.jpg)

Looks more like a wolf to me, but I'd still call it a nice job.  :)

Or, with the red eyes, maybe the Hound of the Baskervilles.  ;D
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: CellarDweller on June 22, 2022, 08:36:32 pm
:laugh:
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Jeff Wrangler on June 24, 2022, 09:23:17 am
Today is Midsummer Day.  :D
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Sason on June 24, 2022, 12:19:21 pm
Here it's midsummer eve.

Celebrated by erecting and dancing around the maypole, eating herring, new potatoes, chives, strawberries and drinking schnaps. Preferably outdoors if the weather permits.
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: CellarDweller on June 24, 2022, 02:37:33 pm
(https://pics.drugstore.com/prodimg/478337/450.jpg)
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: serious crayons on June 24, 2022, 03:53:15 pm
Here's a documentary about the holiday:

Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: CellarDweller on June 24, 2022, 05:44:49 pm
:laugh:
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Sason on June 25, 2022, 01:02:18 pm
LOL that seems to be a slightly different version from what I've seen so far! :laugh:
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Sason on June 25, 2022, 01:09:57 pm
Here's a more reliable explanation, only slightly exaggerated on a few details  ;D


Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Jeff Wrangler on May 31, 2023, 08:09:36 am
In three weeks it will be Midsummer Day--I mean the Summer Solstice.

The year will be half over already.

This year the approach of the solstice is giving me a feeling that--I don't know--I guess I could use the old-fashioned word melancholy.

I'm not sure why. There is probably more than one reason.  ???

I'm certain it has something to do with the days beginning gradually to be shorter.  :(
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Front-Ranger on May 31, 2023, 09:55:48 am
Thanks for the heads-up. I think there's a movie called Midsommer, I'll look for it. Or we could watch "Midsommer Murders."

Although my first thought was, "It's only May and yet the Shorter Days Moaning has started already."

Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: serious crayons on May 31, 2023, 11:48:30 am
Thanks for the heads-up. I think there's a movie called Midsommer, I'll look for it. Or we could watch "Midsommer Murders."

Although my first thought was, "It's only May and yet the Shorter Days Moaning has started already."

I started my own personal Shorter Days Moaning last night.  :laugh:  And ahem, it will be June tomorrow and the solstice is just three weeks away.

My son took a date to Midsommer and regretted it during the very first scene and beyond. Apparently it's pretty creepy.


This year the approach of the solstice is giving me a feeling that--I don't know--I guess I could use the old-fashioned word melancholy.

Meanwhile, there's another movie called Melancholy. It's not particularly creepy -- although it's about humans on earth awaiting their imminent destruction by an asteroid, so not exactly cheerful -- but the director, Lars von Trier has done some of the most creepy movies out there. I mean, I haven't seen them so maybe I shouldn't talk, but what I've read about them makes them sound so creepy I've vowed not to see them.


Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: CellarDweller on May 31, 2023, 03:23:25 pm
There's some time before the shorter days start....I know, I'm counting.  ;D
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Jeff Wrangler on May 31, 2023, 03:52:04 pm
There's some time before the shorter days start....I know, I'm counting.  ;D

You're just weird. Go back in your coffin. We'll wake you in October.  ;D  :-*
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: southendmd on May 31, 2023, 04:20:29 pm
(https://media3.giphy.com/media/ljE57hRBCNcsg/giphy.gif)
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: CellarDweller on May 31, 2023, 07:49:34 pm
You're just weird. Go back in your coffin. We'll wake you in October.  ;D  :-*


https://timer-clock.com/countdown/equinox/how-many-days-until-june-solstice
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: CellarDweller on May 31, 2023, 07:50:09 pm
(https://media3.giphy.com/media/ljE57hRBCNcsg/giphy.gif)

 :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Jeff Wrangler on June 21, 2023, 08:02:56 am
Today is the summer solstice.

Friday we lose an hour a minute of daylight.

Somebody go bang on the lid of Chuck's coffin. ...

Edit to Add: Idiotic mistyping fixed thanks to Katherine.
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Front-Ranger on June 21, 2023, 10:12:38 am
Yes, but we gain an hour of delightful nighttime! You see, the wonderful thing is, there are always 24 hours in a day, some of them light, and some of them dark. I feel a it like Gandalf right now.  ::)
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Jeff Wrangler on June 21, 2023, 10:23:48 am
Yes, but we gain an hour of delightful nighttime!

Not a fan. I prefer longer daylight hours.

From Martin Luther's prayer for morning:

"We give thanks to you, heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ your dear Son, that you have protected us through the night from all danger and harm."

I subscribe to a small devotional booklet published quarterly by the ELCA. The cover on the issue for the next quarter has a picture of trees clad in lovely fall foliage.
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: serious crayons on June 21, 2023, 11:53:10 am
Friday we lose an hour of daylight.

I'm with you on preferring daylight, but what does this mean? We won't lose an hour of daylight two days from now. Am I reading it wrong or misunderstanding some fundamental aspect of seasonal change?

I'm looking at Minneapolis numbers, where sunset remains at 9:03 p.m. through the end of the month and sunrise is only three minutes later on June 30 (from 5:26 a.m. now to 5:29 a.m.).

Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Jeff Wrangler on June 21, 2023, 12:04:27 pm
I'm with you on preferring daylight, but what does this mean? We won't lose an hour of daylight two days from now. Am I reading it wrong or misunderstanding some fundamental aspect of seasonal change?

No, what you're reading is my somehow typing hour when I meant minute.  :(   >:(

I'm going back and fixing that idiotic mistake.

Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Jeff Wrangler on June 21, 2023, 01:28:57 pm
I'm looking at Minneapolis numbers, where sunset remains at 9:03 p.m. through the end of the month and sunrise is only three minutes later on June 30 (from 5:26 a.m. now to 5:29 a.m.).

This is really so stupid. We've had this discussion before. I know all about the tilt of the earth's axis. I know all about "the land of the midnight sun," and all. I even just looked at a graphic of the movement of the earth around the sun. Today summer begins in the northern hemisphere; the sun at noon is over the tropic of Cancer. Yet when I visualize the apparent motion of the sun against the earth, I cannot visualize why it doesn't get darker sooner the farther north you go. I wish I could.  :(

The streets of Philadelphia are said to run east and west. In reality, they're tilted a bit, so the streets actually run a bit east northeast to a bit south southwest. My building is on the south side of an east-west street, so it runs parallel to the street. There is a window at the east end of the hallway.

When I went into the office each morning, it was neat that I could see the apparent motion of the sun through the window. At the vernal and autumnal equinoxes, the morning sun would be shining directly into the window and down the hall. At the summer solstice, the sun would appear to be so far north that it would be shining against the south wall of the hallway. At the winter solstice, the sun would appear to be so far south that it would be shining against the north wall of the hallway. I could watch the change of the seasons by the apparent motion of the sun through the window. It was fun, and it gave me a feeling of being connected to our very ancient past.  :)
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: CellarDweller on June 21, 2023, 03:06:19 pm
Somebody go bang on the lid of Chuck's coffin.


Ahhhhh....the end of Longerdays, and the start of Shorterdays!   :laugh:
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Front-Ranger on June 22, 2023, 09:29:05 am
The longest day of the year really did feel like it for me. I got up early, thanks to my feline alarm clock, and did some bill paying and other computer work until 8 am, then worked outside until it was too hot to, about 10 am. Coming in, I realized I had forgotten to have breakfast. After I'd fixed that, I did my Wordle game and sent some emails; then I went over to daughter's house to help her with child sitting. Really there's very little sitting involved. Child-running?

I did that until 3:30 pm. Midway through, I started to get light headed when getting up from the floor or a chair. The morning's work outside was catching up to me. Drinking copious amounts of water helped, but I wished I had brought over some vitamin water or tea to make it more palatable. Leaving daughter's, I ran errands until about 6 pm. When I got home, there were phone calls and emails to return. I then headed outside to do more yard work. I bundled up a large load of sticks and brush that I had cut over the spring and put them out for pick-up on Friday. I de-algaed the pond and refilled it as the heat had caused evaporation. I set out potted plants for the coming rain to water them. I tried to dump out buckets of standing water that were all over. I whacked some weeds and hand pulled some others. Checked the roses for Japanese beetles...not there yet. Added to the compost. And on and on. Somewhere in there, hopefully, I had some dinner. Collapsed around 9 pm as the sun finally went down. During the night, there was a heavy rain and everything is soaked this morning.
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Jeff Wrangler on June 22, 2023, 11:13:33 am
The longest day of the year really did feel like it for me. I got up early, thanks to my feline alarm clock, and did some bill paying and other computer work until 8 am, then worked outside until it was too hot to, about 10 am. Coming in, I realized I had forgotten to have breakfast. After I'd fixed that, I did my Wordle game and sent some emails; then I went over to daughter's house to help her with child sitting. Really there's very little sitting involved. Child-running?

I did that until 3:30 pm. Midway through, I started to get light headed when getting up from the floor or a chair. The morning's work outside was catching up to me. Drinking copious amounts of water helped, but I wished I had brought over some vitamin water or tea to make it more palatable. Leaving daughter's, I ran errands until about 6 pm. When I got home, there were phone calls and emails to return. I then headed outside to do more yard work. I bundled up a large load of sticks and brush that I had cut over the spring and put them out for pick-up on Friday. I de-algaed the pond and refilled it as the heat had caused evaporation. I set out potted plants for the coming rain to water them. I tried to dump out buckets of standing water that were all over. I whacked some weeds and hand pulled some others. Checked the roses for Japanese beetles...not there yet. Added to the compost. And on and on. Somewhere in there, hopefully, I had some dinner. Collapsed around 9 pm as the sun finally went down. During the night, there was a heavy rain and everything is soaked this morning.

One summer when I was a kid, my grandparents were traveling, and my father was expected to take care of the house (of course he was). That summer there was a plague of Japanese beetles, and my dad and I were expected to de-beetle Grandma's rose bushes. We were to pick them off the bushes and kill them by dropping them in tin cans with lighter fluid in the bottom. It was gross.

FRiend you must be very efficient to accomplish all that in one day. Maybe you should write a book on time management.
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Jeff Wrangler on June 22, 2023, 11:28:03 am
During the night, there was a heavy rain and everything is soaked this morning.

According to CNN almost 100 people were injured by hail at Red Rocks last night. You were probably fortunate if all you got was heavy rain.
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: serious crayons on June 22, 2023, 12:08:13 pm
This is really so stupid. We've had this discussion before. I know all about the tilt of the earth's axis. I know all about "the land of the midnight sun," and all. I even just looked at a graphic of the movement of the earth around the sun. Today summer begins in the northern hemisphere; the sun at noon is over the tropic of Cancer. Yet when I visualize the apparent motion of the sun against the earth, I cannot visualize why it doesn't get darker sooner the farther north you go. I wish I could.  :(

I have trouble visualizing it, too. I guess it's because the northern part of the northern hemisphere is closer to the sun than the southern part of the northern hemisphere? I'm not sure if that sufficiently explains it.

I also think it's weird that we call June 21 the first day of summer. In my job I've often had to write about snowstorms or other weather events, so I call the local National Weather Service office and talk to one of the meteorologists for info. They always seem happy to chat and to appreciate the attention, so I'll ask them about records, averages, whether something is related to climate change, etc. Anyway, apparently in the meteorology community they call June, July and August "meteorological summer." In other words, they use a term that conforms to the way every normal person thinks of summer (just as the meteorologists and normal people think of fall as September, October and November, and so on) So why are we stuck with less intuitive, harder-to-remember dates for seasonal change?

I did finally solve one mystery, though. I've always wondered why they're called "meteorologists." Apparently (thanks, Google) the word derives from the Greek met?ōros, which means a study of things high in the air.


Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Jeff Wrangler on June 22, 2023, 12:52:46 pm
I have trouble visualizing it, too.

I'm glad it's not just me.  :D

Quote
I also think it's weird that we call June 21 the first day of summer. In my job I've often had to write about snowstorms or other weather events, so I call the local National Weather Service office and talk to one of the meteorologists for info. They always seem happy to chat and to appreciate the attention, so I'll ask them about records, averages, whether something is related to climate change, etc. Anyway, apparently in the meteorology community they call June, July and August "meteorological summer." In other words, they use a term that conforms to the way every normal person thinks of summer (just as the meteorologists and normal people think of fall as September, October and November, and so on)

We had a local TV meteorologist, now retired, who used to talk about that. Add to it, and maybe it just confuses things, in these parts anyway, it can still be stinkin' hot in September. I remember one September when I was in junior high, I came home from school one afternoon essentially suffering from heat exhaustion (of course no air conditioning in a school). My mother had me sit in a bathtub full of tepid water till I cooled down.

Quote
So why are we stuck with less intuitive, harder-to-remember dates for seasonal change?

I guess somebody somewhere some time decided to base it on the solstices and the equinoxes. I have no idea who or where or when. Maybe it was the astronomers in the time of Julius Caesar, the guys who misjudged the days/dates of the solstices and quinoxes. (I don't find these dates hard to remember, but I'm a geek about such things.  ;D  )

Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Sason on June 22, 2023, 02:01:15 pm
Anyway, apparently in the meteorology community they call June, July and August "meteorological summer." In other words, they use a term that conforms to the way every normal person thinks of summer (just as the meteorologists and normal people think of fall as September, October and November, and so on)

That's what we do here too. I've never heard of summer starting on the 21 of June.

So I guess we are normal then  ;D
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: southendmd on June 22, 2023, 02:44:51 pm
Normal?  Hardly.  Y'all call June 24 "midsummer".   ::)
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Sason on June 22, 2023, 03:27:07 pm
Only if it falls on a Saturday.

Since 1953 midsommar is celebrated on the Friday nearest to the 23.

They moved it to not break up the work week.

The celebration is on Friday, the recovery is on Saturday ;D



Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: serious crayons on June 22, 2023, 03:41:24 pm
So I guess we are normal then  ;D

Well, I wouldn't go that far.  :laugh:


Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: serious crayons on June 22, 2023, 03:49:43 pm
I'm glad it's not just me.  :D

We had a local TV meteorologist, now retired, who used to talk about that. Add to it, and maybe it just confuses things, in these parts anyway, it can still be stinkin' hot in September. I remember one September when I was in junior high, I came home from school one afternoon essentially suffering from heat exhaustion (of course no air conditioning in a school). My mother had me sit in a bathtub full of tepid water till I cooled down.

Very smart of your mother to use tepid rather than cool or cold water. Not to bring in yet another puzzling matter of physics but I've read it's best to go with tepid. Maybe because if it's too cold your body warms up further in a misguided way of countering it?

And yes, I was about to say it starts getting hot at the beginning of June and cools down in September. Then I remembered that in New Orleans it starts getting hot at the beginning of May and doesn't cool down until October. And no doubt the opposite could be said for Minnesota winters. (Minneapolis and New Orleans are like symmetrical opposites.)

Quote
(I don't find these dates hard to remember, but I'm a geek about such things.  ;D  )

I can't always remember the exact date of the equinoxes (20th? 21st? 23rd?). Not the solstices, though -- they're too important as the holidays Longerdays and Shorterdays.

On another topic, what's with the normal font?


 
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Sason on June 22, 2023, 04:18:28 pm
Well, I wouldn't go that far.  :laugh:


Ahem....... :(


Actually, I think we are the most normal country in the world!! ;D
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: CellarDweller on June 22, 2023, 05:26:53 pm
Actually, I think we are the most normal country in the world!! ;D


(https://img.memegenerator.net/instances/67117982.jpg)
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Jeff Wrangler on June 22, 2023, 07:10:44 pm
And yes, I was about to say it starts getting hot at the beginning of June and cools down in September. Then I remembered that in New Orleans it starts getting hot at the beginning of May and doesn't cool down until October. And no doubt the opposite could be said for Minnesota winters. (Minneapolis and New Orleans are like symmetrical opposites.)

I thought in New Orleans it started getting hot in January and cooled down in December. ...
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Jeff Wrangler on June 23, 2023, 10:36:02 am
Actually, I think we are the most normal country in the world!! ;D

Maybe that's why it's boring. Nothing exciting about normalcy.  8)
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Jeff Wrangler on June 23, 2023, 10:38:12 am
As I just wrote elsewhere, tomorrow is Midsummer Day (or Sainte-Jean-Baptiste Day).

I can never remember whether we're supposed to light a bonfire tonight (the eve of the day) or tomorrow night.  :(
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: serious crayons on June 23, 2023, 11:54:06 am
I thought in New Orleans it started getting hot in January and cooled down in December. ...

Haha! No, the winters are very nice, but as short as Minneapolis summers.

Speaking of which, the longtime New York Times book critic Michiko Kakutani, reviewing Lab Girl, which is partly set in Minnesota, once wrote "Ms. Jahren?s own childhood in a small Minnesota town, where there was snow on the ground nine months of the year and where most residents worked for a huge slaughterhouse, was filled with silences."

Oh, c'mon! Two minutes googling (or a better editor) could have fixed that. Minneapolis often has snow by Thanksgiving and sometimes sees a snowstorm in April. So at most it's about six months of snow on the ground. (Which, don't get me wrong, is about five and a half months too long.) And Austin, home of Hormel Meats, is farther south, so even less there.

Also, "filled with silences"? That's at best a poetic exaggeration. Though it may echo something in Lab Girl, which I read some years ago.



Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Sason on June 23, 2023, 04:49:04 pm

(https://img.memegenerator.net/instances/67117982.jpg)


(https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0518/7259/6138/products/N223-120cm_800x.png?v=1623401498)
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Sason on June 23, 2023, 04:51:01 pm
Maybe that's why it's boring. Nothing exciting about normalcy.  8)

Excuse you?

Nothing boring here, I assure you!!  8)
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Sason on June 23, 2023, 04:54:39 pm
As I just wrote elsewhere, tomorrow is Midsummer Day (or Sainte-Jean-Baptiste Day).

I can never remember whether we're supposed to light a bonfire tonight (the eve of the day) or tomorrow night.  :(

We dance around a midsummer pole today

(https://bilder.hembygd.se/shf/uploads/images/9b093dfb-e4e7-4c18-b3a6-e82156be77c0.jpg)
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Sason on June 23, 2023, 05:01:36 pm
You call us boring, Jeff?

This is how much fun we have on midsummer!





 ;D ;D ;D
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: serious crayons on June 23, 2023, 05:54:29 pm

But also ...  :o


(http://cdn.kinocheck.com/i/w=375/7yfvl6grz2.jpg)
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Jeff Wrangler on June 23, 2023, 09:42:16 pm
We dance around a midsummer pole today

(https://bilder.hembygd.se/shf/uploads/images/9b093dfb-e4e7-4c18-b3a6-e82156be77c0.jpg)

You realize, of course, that a pole like that, like a May pole also, is an ancient phallic symbol?
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: CellarDweller on June 24, 2023, 11:54:40 am
As I just wrote elsewhere, tomorrow is Midsummer Day (or Sainte-Jean-Baptiste Day).

I can never remember whether we're supposed to light a bonfire tonight (the eve of the day) or tomorrow night.  :(


Found this on Google.


Bonfires are lit on Midsummer's Eve to ward off witches and evil spirits and warm up late-night revelers. Build your own (even a small campfire will do) as a way to keep bad luck at bay.
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: serious crayons on June 24, 2023, 12:36:29 pm
You realize, of course, that a pole like that, like a May pole also, is an ancient phallic symbol?

I'd never thought about it, but makes sense. Sexual activities seem common in ancient pagan traditional celebrations, or at least that's how legend has it.

In New Orleans for Mardi Gras, they crown "Rex," or King of Carnival, usually a local middle-aged aristocratic businessman, and pick a debutante as Queen. I used to joke that just before midnight on Mardi Gras the royal couple had to have sex on Bourbon Street to ensure a good tourist season.

Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Jeff Wrangler on June 24, 2023, 02:31:59 pm
I'd never thought about it, but makes sense. Sexual activities seem common in ancient pagan traditional celebrations, or at least that's how legend has it.

In New Orleans for Mardi Gras, they crown "Rex," or King of Carnival, usually a local middle-aged aristocratic businessman, and pick a debutante as Queen. I used to joke that just before midnight on Mardi Gras the royal couple had to have sex on Bourbon Street to ensure a good tourist season.

At Beltane people had sex in the fields to ensure good crops, so why not have sex to ensure a good tourist season?  ;D

I believe I've told this story. A gay Wiccan once explained to me about having sex to ensure good crops. I thought a moment, and then I said to him, "So two gay men having sex are going to ensure good crops." (I made a statement; I didn't ask a question.)

He thought a moment, and then he said to me, "You know, you just might have something there."

 :laugh:

(As if gay men need an excuse to have sex. ... I suppose it's the same for straight people, too.  ??? )
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: serious crayons on June 24, 2023, 02:59:59 pm
At Beltane people had sex in the fields to ensure good crops, so why not have sex to ensure a good tourist season?  ;D

Yes, that's what I was alluding to. It would be especially gross in New Orleans because the king is a middle aged man and the queen is a college student. Then again, historically that's probably a fairly common trait of sex-for-good-fortune pairings.

Quote
(As if gay men need an excuse to have sex. ... I suppose it's the same for straight people, too.  ??? )

Ehh, I think it gets more complicated between straight people, for a number of reasons.  :-\


Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Sason on June 24, 2023, 04:44:47 pm
But also ...  :o


(http://cdn.kinocheck.com/i/w=375/7yfvl6grz2.jpg)

Yeah, I know about it but I haven't seen it. I don't like scary movies.
Title: Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
Post by: Sason on June 24, 2023, 04:47:38 pm
You realize, of course, that a pole like that, like a May pole also, is an ancient phallic symbol?

Of course I do, it's common knowledge here.

Midsommar is one of the relatively few holidays that have nothing to do with Christianity.

It's an ancient celebration of summer and fecundity.