For those who want to "get out there," either as an excuse to get outside or to fix the view out the window, the landscape could still use your attention.
Outdoors, we experience the majesty of the Sun’s trajectory from sunrise at its extreme northeast reach, climbing to what seems to be the top of the sky at midday and then arcing to set at its extreme northwest position on the horizon.
Halloween encourages our imaginations and coaxes us to embrace the dark time of year marks the approximate halfway point between the autumnal equinox (September 22) and the winter solstice (December 21).
We experience sustained maximum sunlight during the six-week period that spans from May 30 through July 13, when days are 15 hours or longer between sunrise and sunset.
In the absence of protective and nourishing snow and sustained freezing weather, it seems arbitrary to proceed as if there’s been winter and to accept that we are halfway to spring.
Although the vegetable gardener is focused on growing staple foods, immeasurable benefit is gleaned when “edge elements” are included. Plants of purely botanical and ecological interest invariably attract beneficial birds and insects.
Scarce starlight in the double glowing of the night sky remind us the Soltice is really about light, long days of summer so easy to live with, encouraging us to forget caution and prudence, and, like sky night, burn our candles at both ends.
The longest days of the year, from Friday the 19th – Wednesday the 24th, are 15 hours 16 minutes, which leaves 8 hours 44 minutes from sundown to sunup, the shortest nights of the year. For the rest of June and through the first week of July, nights are barely 8 hours long when dawn and dusk are taken into account.
In mid-January the northern hemisphere comes out of the darkest days of the year, the days on either side of the winter solstice. At a quickened pace, daylight lifts the late afternoon. An increase to 9 hours 57 minutes will be experienced on January 31.
