A revisit to the celebration of summer.

I'm gonna make you read all the way to the end for the video. :)

I was probably too tough on June here. So I've made amends in the quote above. Probably because I'm so happy that the jeweled Northwest June has arrived here - at least for awhile: blue skies, warm-but-not-brutal temperatures, flowering gardens and green all around. Long lovely light-fllled days. And the teacher in me, with friends still on the frontline, always loves the last day of school. It's in the DNA. As I used to say, the best day of the year is not Christmas or any other favorite holiday, but the first day of summer vacation!

In honor of the Summer Solstice, I am reposting the video I created last year celebrating the summer season. (It's at the bottom of the post.) Enjoy yours: all the watermelons, corn-on-the-cobs, (corns-on-the-cob, pray tell?) popsicles, grilled burgers, hot dogs, baseball, picnic potato salads, peaches, plums and ice cream cones your little heart desires.

Here are some other ways the northern hemisphere celebrates the arrival of summer:

June: Strawberry MoonThe wild strawberries that start to ripen during early summer gave name to the Full Moon in June.https://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/moon/strawberry.html — June: Strawberry Moon
The wild strawberries that start to ripen during early summer gave name to the Full Moon in June.
https://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/moon/strawberry.html

In Alaska, midnight baseball is played annually on the day where there are 22 hours of daylight.

Reykjavik, the northernmost capital of the world, experiences 72 continuous hours of sunlight between June 20th-22nd, which, for Icelanders, is a good excuse to throw a massive party Amidst a 3-day music festival, most bars downtown stay open late into the night and into morning to satisfy all-night party-goers. (And may I say, personally, that I am glad I am out of THAT stage of my life, if indeed I was ever in it).

If you happen to be at Stonehenge, in Egypt at the Pyramids, or in Sedona, Arizona, may I also say, Lucky You! Special sunrises and celebrations await you. You and dozens -nay, hundreds? - of other tourists.

As for Bob and me, we will celebrate these first few days of summer (and, oh, how quickly they fly) with some evening walks, a block picnic featuring Bocce Ball and Croquet, putzing in the garden, reading on the patio swing, and a general sense of being blessed, even as are fervently hoping our country can rise to the high bar we once set for ourselves. Our thoughts are with the children right now.