Issue # 71 Summer Solstice Celebrations

Swimming, celebrating and wondering as the earth tilts us toward winter...

It doesn’t seem quite right that the summer solstice is here already does it. The seasons seem out of kilter. How can it be mid summer? What happened to spring? Up until this week it has been cold enough to light the wood stove in the evenings and wet enough that despite the leaves on trees you could have almost believed it was still winter. There have been occasional days of warmth and light, but these have been anomalies, rare opportunities to be pounced upon.

Although today marks the start of astronomical summer, it also marks the beginning of the end of long days as we tilt slowly away from light and back towards darkness. It is a slightly melancholy affair, unlike the winter solstice which holds nothing but unbridled joy. Still we celebrate anyway, because astronomical events are worth honouring. They serve as a reminder of our precarious place in the cosmos, small and spinning and hurtling through an ever expanding universe.

This year, we hiked up a steep zig zag track, passed a profusion of foxgloves to our favourite tarn to swim and to eat dinner at the water’s edge and bask in the illusion of the setting sun as it dipped behind the mountains.

It was cloudy and cool as we swam, but later as we sat on the soft grassy bank the veil lifted allowing golden light to pour across the landscape and warm our bodies. We were never going to stay up late enough to watch the actual sunset, but we lingered for as long as we could, watching the earth slowly rotate until the tops of the hills became silhouetted and the land cloaked in shadow.

On our way back down towards the shaded valley, I feel a tug of reluctance to let the sun disappear out of sight. I am not ready for the longest day to be gone so soon. I am not ready for the slow descent towards winter in a year that feels as if I’m still waiting for spring. I am still waiting for the good things that longer, lighter days promise and yet they are already on the wane.

With a sigh, I turn away, bid farewell to the first half of the year and try to remind myself that the whole of summer is yet to come, loaded with the promise of adventures still to be had…

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Well, that’s all for this week. How did you celebrate solstice? Whatever you did and whatever your plans are for the season ahead, we wish you a summer full of good things!

With warm wishes,

Andrew, Emma and Benji

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