I had a lovely weekend away from the computer (and new iPhone even!) celebrating the beginning of summer. The solstice occurred at 1:45 am EDT (summer for us in the North, winter in the South!) and is the time in which the sun is the highest in the sky from the Northern hemisphere, thus giving us the longest day and shortest night of the year. In astronomer-speak, the sun is at a declination of approximately +23.5 degrees, or on the spot on the ecliptic path that is 23.5 degrees above the celestial equator. It also means, it’s hot out.
My celebration included cherry picking! A late frost nipped some of the cherry blossoms before they could bear fruit, and the recent rains made many of the rest moldy. In addition, many of the trees in the open section of Spring Valley Orchard had been well picked over, but the boys decided that getting into the trees was the way to get those hard to reach fruits! There were some ladders scattered about, but what boy doesn’t like climbing into a tree?
Tim, hunting the wild cherry…
Quality control on the ground
Later that night, my boyfriend said something wonderful to me. He said, “Dear, could we watch ‘Contact’? I know you love that movie and I’ve never seen it before.” Boys, to make a geekgirl swoon, the little things will do it. I’ll nerd-out over Carl Sagan in an upcoming post, so stay tuned!
Aw, what a great start to summer!
Certainly is.
We miss you here in CVille, Rachel! And I love your blog.