Another bandofsketchers prompt “Solstice” drawn in the Artrage app. I wanted to draw stonehenge but I couldn’t get the shapes right, so my solstice is set in Egypt.
Solstice
Tag: Solstice
Longest (or Shortest? Day)
Someone reminded me what day it is today. Midsummers day. In the Northern Hemisphere it’s the longest day. I’m not sure but I think it’s the Shortest day in the Southern Hemisphere.
We have been singing “Summer is Icumen in” in choir. I usually sing the “foot” which is sung under the lyrics which are an example of middle english polyphony.
This is a set of lyrics from Wikipedia :
Middle English
Sumer is icumen in
Lhude sing cuccu
Groweþ sed
and bloweþ med
and springþ þe wde nu
Sing cuccu
Awe bleteþ after lomb
lhouþ after calue cu
Bulluc sterteþ
bucke uerteþ
murie sing cuccu
Cuccu cuccu
Wel singes þu cuccu
ne swik þu nauer nu
Sing cuccu nu • Sing cuccu.
Sing cuccu • Sing cuccu nu[9]
Modern English
Summer[a] has arrived,
Loudly sing, cuckoo!
The seed is growing
And the meadow is blooming,
And the wood is coming into leaf now,
Sing, cuckoo!
The ewe is bleating after her lamb,
The cow is lowing after her calf;
The bullock is prancing,
The billy-goat farting, [or “The stag cavorting”[11]]
Sing merrily, cuckoo!
Cuckoo, cuckoo,
You sing well, cuckoo,
Never stop now.
Sing, cuckoo, now; sing, cuckoo;
Sing, cuckoo; sing, cuckoo, now![12]
Shortest day
People were meeting for sunrise at Stonehenge this morning as today was the shortest day of the year in the northern Hemisphere. This is the Northern winter solstice.
Apparently the day was less that 8 hours long, although it was so cloudy and grey it might have been shorter for all I could tell.
Of course on the equator days and nights are pretty much of equal length and I presume the Southern Hemisphere had its longest day either yesterday or today. What will it be like in six months when it’s summer here again? Who knows.
Today is….
So, we have equal amounts of day and night today according to this.
Days will get shorter than nights until the Winter Solstice around the 21st of December 2023, then lengthen again. In the Southern Hemisphere the days will get longer until their Summer Solstice.
I don’t like the lack of sunlight and the change from British Summer time to Greenwich Mean time also gets to me. We lose an hour of evening daylight in October, although we get lighter mornings. But studies in the 1960’s or 1970’s showed that overall there were less accidents when they kept British Summertime for three years. Sadly the change was abandoned.
Maybe we could revisit the idea? Saving an hours electricity in the winter evenings might even help the environment?
Summer solstice
Today was the Summer solstice, the longest day here in the Northern Hemisphere. In Scotland it was Dawn before 4am and after 10pm … 19 hours of daylight. From now on the day length will start to shorten again until we reach the shortest day in December.
So in the next ten minutes before British summer time midnight I shall cherish those extra minutes of light. I hope we have a good (and cool) summer and that we don’t get mad temperatures like last year, but I doubt it, we have already had a hot June and it’s not over yet.
Think about climate change and the things you can do to help keep overheating down. Hugs, happy solstice.
Solstice
When the sum rose this morning it was on the shortest day of the year. Now the days up here in the Northern Hemisphere will slowly start to lengthen again. At first at a minute or two a day, but gradually a few more minutes around spring time. Then as the Summer solstice approaches the number of minutes slows down. Finally after that the process goes into reverse and the days begin to wane again. So the great cycle of light and dark tumbles along North and South. Only on the equator are day and night lengths balanced out. The cause? Earth is tipped at an angle, so for six months of the year one half of the planet gets more light than the other (which also proves the Earth is a globe).
Happy Solstice everyone!
Clocks going back
This morning it was dark at seven am. Tomorrow night our clocks go back an hour in the UK. On Sunday morning it will be getting light an hour earlier and we will get an extra hour in bed. Fine, but then we lose that hour in the evening, so it will be going dark at five pm.
I Hate that. I find my spark going out in the winter. I feel like a wraith wandering through the gloom. I don’t think I have SAD, but I am Sad. I wait till the sun starts to go down later every day, as the winter Solstice passes, and the returning Sun starts to cheer me up again.
Sunny for a while
Light at this time of year is always low. Striking across the ground rather than high above it. This is because the Earths Northern hemisphere tips away from the Sun. So much so that the North Pole dips into darkness in the winter months. Shadows are long now and when you do get into sunshine the light can be blinding from the Sun on the horizon. You can look for images of the suns track across the sky at different times of the year. It basically arcs round from East to West but tipped at an angle dipping more South as winter progresses, then from the winter solstice around the 21st of December, it starts to slowly work its way back up the sky until its almost overhead on Midsummer day at midday, then the cycle starts all over again.
What to do on the Solstice
I can remember seeing the sun set and then come out again from behind the Cloud hill, near Congleton, Cheshire.
I could not remember where we were but according to ITV.com there is a place to stand to see it….
‘The solar event which happens just once each year will be visible in the Midlands tonight.
The double sunset takes places during the the summer solstice and can be seen from various locations around North Staffordshire.
According to the Oxford Journals the double sunset can be seen from the churchyard of St Edward the Confessor in Leek. The alignment of a local hill means that the Sun is occulted close to sunset around the time of the summer solstice. This phenomenon was described in 1686 by Dr Robert Plot. Calculations show the phenomenon will be visible for another 500 years.
- How does it happen?
The apparent double sunset is due to the rotation of the Earth. As the sun sinks behind The Cloud the planet continues to rotate, allowing the sun to become briefly visible again.’
Apologies for the length of the quote, but it explains what I mean clearly.
Please note I’ve now been advised: due to earth movement and buildings it can no longer be seen in St Edwards churchyard but can be viewed from Lowe hill near Leek. My Dad is Doug Pickford who has written books about local legends (info from a friend)
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Solstice
As the year waxes and wanes,
as time passes,
light rises and falls.
Life comes and goes,
hearing bird song, then silence.
Summer solstice,
the world is warm,
but days will shrink and shrivel.
Winter solstice,
the promise of warmth,
locked in ice,
day lengthens, nights slowly shrink.
North and South
seasons, polar opposites.
Hot in one hemisphere,
cold in the other.
Unless, near the equator,
seasons are less obvious,
No frozen wastes here.
World floating in space,
around Sol, the Sun, our star,
Earth tipped at an angle,
anchored by moon,
held in mutual gravity
Eternal?
Mallaband-Brown 