author, publisher, swimmer
Summer is in full force where I live. Heat, storms, everything green . . . we’re getting it all. Which is okay because it’s the Summer Solstice! The time of the big change. The turn of the seasonal wheel. (BTW: I consider the solstice the middle of summer, not the beginning. Anybody who understands how things work can see this, right? And the Swedes even add skinny dipping to mark their Midsummer holiday.)
Here are some recent highlights of 2022’s summer so far for me…
I like fresh starts. Unknown adventures. Turning points. And I’ve had my share.
Today is the winter solstice (for us Northern Hemispherians). A time of change. When the light advances. When the seasons turn.
I like to write about the turning points of the seasons, the so-called “four posts” of the astronomical calendar. In this case, the longest day of the year (for the Northern Hemisphere): the Summer Solstice. Today.
It’s the midpoint of the year for me (the year starting at the Winter Solstice). And for summer, it’s roughly midway in the growing season, halfway between planting and harvest.
I like to sit on my front stoop (means “small porch,” originally from the Dutch stoep) and watch the sun arc its way through the seasons. Above is a morning view I captured the day before yesterday. Our recent snow had melted but you can see some frost on the grass.
Because my house faces east—we built it that way; it’s a feng shui thing—I get to contemplate the movement of the sun as it appears over the trees one notch to my right (north to south) each day, working its way to the Winter Solstice, which happens to be today. After December 21, the whole process reverses until the Summer Solstice is reached in June, and the whole cycle repeats. It’s my personal light show.