'The festival of the summer solstice speaks of love and light, of freedom and generosity of spirit. It is a beautiful time of the year where vibrant flowers whisper to us with scented breath, forests and woodlands hang heavy in the summer's heat and our souls become enchanted with midsummer magic."
~Carole Carlton
Mrs. Darley's Pagan Whispers
A Celebration of Pagan Festivals, Sacred Days, Spirituality and Traditions of the Year
Summer, is here, faster than I thought it would be. This year is really moving along nicely. That means that in just 90 days, we will be starting autumn. If you've been reading my blog, for any length of time, or just happen to know me... at all... you already know how excited I am right now. Summer is a necessary evil, an annoyance to endure, until we to get to autumn, with it's earthly beauty, and colorful celebration of old age and death. Autumn, the one season that I feel truly alive.
While we are only on the first day of summer, the hot weather in the Central Valley usually begins in middle of May. Thankfully, we have only had a few truly HOT days so far. But I anticipate that as we round the corner from June to July things will change in a big way. Last year, on the 4th of July, the heat was absolutely unbearable. I thought I would melt, but that evening was downright dreamy. Alan and I watched the fireworks, from our front yard, which has been our tradition since we bought the house. It was so much fun.
This year, however, we are planning to head back to San Francisco, to enjoy one of our, now old fashioned, July 4th traditions of watching the fireworks, as we drive along the Embarcadero. We haven't done that in years, and I really miss it, so as you might imagine, I am really happy to see my lovely city again. It's going to be fun, and I am praying that I haven't jinxed the trip by sharing our plans. That has happened more times than I can count. LOL. Hopefully July, and summer, and whichever demon is in charge of spoiling fun will be agreeable this year, as we navigate through, as Stephen King puts it, "treacherous summer."
A truly necessary evil.
There is something equally treacherous about the first day of the summer, also being the longest day of the year!
Begins at 11:54 AM EDT N. of the Equator
As the sun is directly over the Tropic Of Cancer
There will be 14.5 to 15 hours of sunlight
Sunrise: 5:48 am Sunset 8:43 pm PST
San Francisco... we will be there soon!
Note: This is also the time of year I start getting myself back into the swing of blogging. I will be posting more often, as we move through the summer. New words. New photographs. Lots to share. Check back often for new content, usually a couple times a week or so. I will publish a new schedule soon. Thanks for bearing with me.
~Mood: Happy
~Me :)
