I’m probably the only one in the world who doesn’t much like the summer solstice, also known as the first day of summer. It’s just that I find it a bit depressing that once we pass the longest day of the day, we’re on a slow descent into darkness again. Not that I mind winter, but somehow I can’t shake the feeling that it’s more like the last day of summer if the days are starting to get shorter.
By the same token, I’m always excited at the winter equinox when we pass the shortest day of the year. I don’t know if this makes me an optimist or a pessimist…
Anyway, getting shorter or not, we have fabulously long days now; in fact, it never really gets dark. It’s 11:36 p.m. and the sun is just going down, and the view from my desk is fabulous. The picture I took doesn’t fully capture the amazing glow of the sky behind the trees, nor the one tendril of cloud that highlights a column of light up to the denser ceiling above… but it’s still pretty cool. I’m trying to savour this view now (despite the power lines, which the neighbourhood is talking about burying) because soon a two-floor shed/greenhouse will be built back here. Perhaps I might still get to see sunsets like this through the glass of the greenhouse.
Enjoy!
Optimist. Definitely an optimist. You’re a “glass half-full” kind of girl – it’s just that in this instance the halves are reversed (half-empty is really half-full and visa versa). Does that make sense to anyone else?
You’re not alone in feeling that this solstice means summer is over. I completely agree with this thought. Having grown up in a much warmer climate (southern Ontario) I will always long for nice weather that lasts from May until October. I love the Yukon, really I do, but a few more months of summer would make this place absolutely perfect. But I guess that would mean everyone would want to live here and we don’t want that….do we?
“I don’t know if this makes me an optimist or a pessimist…”—Neither, it makes you a realist.
“I’m probably the only one in the world who doesn’t much like the summer solstice” —wrong, this is definitely a chromosome thing. I’ve shed crocodile tears every June 21 longer than you inhabit the surface of this globe.
Would you like to chip in on a cottage on Tierra del Fuego?
That is awesome!
Great picture, Fawn !! And I have the same feelings about the summer solstice, & the winter equinox (although I don’t mind winter, either) … Funny, isn’t it ?!
♥ ♥ ♥
Wasn’t that a gorgeous night? I was on the road and got a few shots of the developing sunset in the Teslin-JC area: http://www.explorenorth.com/wordpress/?p=251
[...] Some Yukoners (including my wife) look at the solstice and see the start of the slide towards winter. I don’t much like winter, either, but I have to enjoy every one of these days without starting my dislike of winter a few months earlier than necessary! [...]