Friends and Family

This should be a busy and fun week. Not only did the world not end on this solstice, some of it is coming here to visit.

My brave and beautiful niece (the one who just had her third open heart surgery a couple of months ago) and her mom are in town from Connecticut for a few days. They came down right after Caitlin played her harp in a Christmas concert. They're staying at a house owned by her mom's sister's family. When she told me, back in November, she would be visiting she asked if we could go play miniature golf. We'll do a couple of rounds this weekend despite the cold front that just blew in. She also wanted to go swimming but I'm not so confident that's going to happen.

Following right behind said cold front are a couple of friends, now married, from back in Utah. They're going to be up in the Tampa/St. Pete/Orlando area starting this weekend assuming their flights take the southern route and don't get entangled in the winter storm disrupting the rest of the country. We'll be able to catch up on all the stuff our other friends aren't willing to post on Facebook.

I'm making cookies for everyone. Oatmeal raisin now, chocolate chip later.

And, welcome back, Sol Invictus!

High Summer

I know Summer doesn't "officially" start for another day or so but I am a big fan of the ancient traditional seasons where the longest days of the year are "Mid-Summer" and the longest nights are "Deep Winter." This is brought to mind by the sudden appearance of a string of the most glorious bright, dry, sunny, slightly breezy days we've seen in months. We've turned off the air-conditioning and flung open all the windows.

We can expect one or two more before the humidity returns.

Time to turn off the computer and go play outside.

The Longest Day . . .

. . .was cut short by a collection of towering, rolling, flat-bottomed thunderheads that came from the east and covered the land faster than the sun could reach the horizon. Distant lightning and muted thunder promised rain--somewhere. But then, it's done this every day for the past week and lied about the rain each time. We're supposed to be into the rainy season now.

We did finally get a fifteen minute shower which is so useless as to be just an insulting tease.

Mom has got a bee in her bonnet about trimming a bush which is growing in front of the dining room window. She says she can't see anything out the window now, which is true, but when it is trimmed the situation won't change since A.) she can hardly see anything now as it is, and B.) when the window is cleared there is nothing out there but the front lawn, the road and an occasional car going by. Nevertheless.

When I caught up with her she had the window open and was trying to remove the screen so she could reach through with a pair of scissors and trim the bush from inside. She said she didn't have the energy to go outside and do it.

Solstice Shadows

This being the longest day of the year is a perfect time to mention a phenomenon which is painfully obvious once observed yet something I had never encountered before living in the northern US and Europe:

Shadows below the Tropic of Cancer face south (at least from Spring to Fall).

Up north, boy scouts without compasses know they kind find their direction because moss grows on the north sides of trees--because sunlight never shines directly there. Up north, artists' garrets have north facing windows for the indirect light because the sun never shines on that side of the building. And just as the north sides of things are always shaded, shadows never face south. Except down here, they do.

Which is just subtle enough that it doesn't feel weird until you become consciously aware of it.

(And, yes, I know I'm not quite at the latitude of the Tropic, but the Sun is big and the effect kind of spills over.)