How are you spending the summer solstice?

[serious crayons]

Good idea for a party, though.

Agreed!

[Front-Ranger]

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!! 

[Front-Ranger]

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!!

[brianr]

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.

[Jeff Wrangler]

What? This is the first day of summer!!

Didn't you used to call it Midsummer Day?

[serious crayons]

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!

[brianr]

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.

[brianr]

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.

[serious crayons]

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?



 

[Jeff Wrangler]

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.