Summer Solstice

May 18, 2024

June 23, 2024

The Summer Solstice was on June 20, and the Strawberry Moon was on June 21. I didn't get a chance to see it because of the clouds. I had been reading Dorte Nors' A Line in the World, set on the west coast of Denmark, and thinking about Midsummer rituals like bonfires in Scandinavia. So the days slipped by me, without any witches burned. Here, our fireworks are for Independence Day on July 4. But the sun rises at its most northern point in the east in the morning, and now begins its march south, hitting its southernmost rising point at the Winter Solstice. The days are beautifully long, and the sun sets at its most northwestern point, shedding golden light on our grasses and the sea.

The mean temperature in June has been 64.6 F, well up from May's 52.8. No heat wave here.

I am experiencing the comfort of place in Nantucket, with its well-worn procession of light and flora and fauna. The sea is changing colors every hour: from shimmer silver gray with an almost white horizon  to deep blue turquoise green against a blue dome of sky.  Now white caps. The rate of growth is so fast in the spring that it has to slow down. The Norwood Oak is now fully leafed out, while a month ago it had just buds. The first pasture thistles are plump, frostweed is on the moors and a Red-spotted purple flits down the moor road. Odonata are flitting about. The voice of the common yellowthroat is heard o'er the land. The colicroot will be blooming soon. 

The view from the Bluff

Snowy Egret

Horned poppy

Frostweed

Red-spotted Purple