Summer Solstice .....

21st June 2017 (Wednesday – the Summer Solstice) .... 05.00 ... yes ... 05.00!    Welllll.... I don’t know what ‘they’ Druids get excited aboot;  sunrise, as witnessed (by me) on the beach this morning was not “iggzactly” spectacular:   there
Summer Solstice sunrise time at Elie and Earlsferry
was a cloudbank on the horizon!    It would be different at Stonehenge which was built with this ‘Solstice sunrise’ in mind.... and they don’t seem to be plagued with 'low cloud’     However I did have the beach to myself from 04.00 through to 04.30 .... sunrise was at 04.23;   and it was very peaceful.   This is the first time that I have witnessed ‘Solstice sunrise time’ from ‘our’ beach.     I have gone up to Chapel Green a few times, but have yet to get a ‘bonnie’ Solstice sunrise  ....  low banks of cloud being the usual problem.    From today the days begin to get shorter and in ‘nae time it will be dark by 20.00.    Orf to have breakfast, then I’ll get the bike out.... if it stays ‘fair’:  rain has been mentioned in the weather forecast.

13.30      It has been overcast with on/off rain most of ‘the day’ so far, and, because of the weather, I decided to go to Sainsbury’s  where I did a ‘shopping, and had a cuppa in the cafe.   I was back in Ivy in time to watch the opening of the new Parliament.   There is no denying it we do ‘Ceremony’ far better than any other country:   even the ‘Crown’ travelled in its own ‘Roller’.    

30 minutes (or so) after sunrise time.
At this moment I’m feeling slightly tired....  I'll have ‘50’.  
20.00    The local thrush (turdus philomelos) has found the Ivy garden snails:  I know this because there are empty snail shells all over the slabs.   Ivy garden must be the ‘Ship Inn’ of the thrush world!     Maggie would be happy with this, even though the garden is wilder than she would perhaps like it to be.   The thrush is doing ‘her’ bit towards tidying up Ivy garden.... though I don’t think the snails will see it that way.
I got the bike out in the middle of the afternoon, the intention being to bike through Elie Estate, but had only got as far as the harbour when a heavy shower came over.... so I went home.    Jimmy was down at the harbour, and came along to Ivy for an
Elie Bay this afternoon.
afternoon cuppa.

Tomorrow I am looking forward to a cup of real coffee... and to seeing Linda and John again!    The weather forecast for tomorrow is for it to be ‘cloudy with good spells of sunshine’.    There has been thunder and lightning around the UK today;   including at Beamish in the NE of England.    I wonder .... is that where Myra and Jim are for a mid week break?


Photographs : Top – Summer Solstice sunrise time over Elie, Middle – 20 minutes after ‘sunrise time’, and Bottom – Elie this afternoon.

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