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| Midnight - Looking North |
Not that Fathers' Day and The Longest Day are in any way related. It's just that this year they fall on the same weekend. Yesterday was the longest day. Apparently today is one second shorter up here. Given the weather it will feel a lot shorter.
Speaking to neighbours and friends today we all had the same thing in mind. We've all been looking forward to the long days and short nights and now it's all down hill and in 182 days it will be the shortest day and 4 days after that it will be Christmas.
I also took a photo last night looking East which, because the scene is being lit and I'm not looking into the sunset looks much lighter and is more like what the eye actually sees. However when I woke this morning the weather had changed completely and I wasn't so keen on the view.
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| Looking East from my kitchen |
I've never been one for observing Fathers' Day and my son, brilliant son though he is, is not a great one on such occasions either. So I was quite surprised when, a few days ago, a card dropped through the door with a big imprecation that the envelope was not to be opened until Fathers' Day. I had to look in my diary to see when it was. This morning I opened the card. It's certainly topical:
Enjoyed seeing the card, and a Happy Father's Day to you, Graham. No big celebration here as well since family is in different states and we're staying closer to home for a while longer. The sky view from the evening before was preferable to the following morning. We could use some of that rainy weather here in nashua, NH this week.
ReplyDeleteBeatrice, today we not only have rain but we have gales too. Even for us that's a bit out of the ordinary for late June. I was looking to see where Nashua was located in NH. I see that it's not far from Manchester. I hope that 'your' Manchester is a step up from the English one.
DeleteYour midnight view is beautiful. The longest day arrived seemingly quicker this year.
ReplyDeleteI don't usually look forward to the longer nights ahead, but for once I am hoping they will return with some semblance of normalcy.
Happy Father's Day. :)
I agree, Jules, that the year so far has disappeared with incredible speed. In contrast some of my friends think that the lockdown has dragged by very slowly. Normalcy would be a huge bonus when winter comes.
DeleteGraham, I loved your "good weather" photo...especially how lovely the plants and water looked. Hope your Father's Day was spent doing just what you wanted. I miss my old personally created little pond with koi and plantings. We're presently without much rain at all and hope we don't lose any of the wonderful new plants in our garden "rooms" with winding paths. Best to you from Maine at the base of our mini-mountain.
ReplyDeleteRegina, thank you for your comment. I'm sorry you 'lost' your pond. I'm very fond of mine and the waterfall into it provides a lovely sound when the wind isn't too loud. Garden "rooms" sounds interesting.
DeleteThe view from your window is wonderful on any day, but I’d hazard a guess it looks like the right-hand picture more often than the left.
ReplyDeleteExcellent card - well done son!
Jayne, you are correct in sunny is not our default weather. Windy is though. I noticed that your water-lilies are doing well. I lost all mine a couple of years ago. They all died in the same Spring so something obviously upset them. I've just re-stocked this year and so far so good.
DeleteGaz has excelled himself. I bet Carol got the card for him.
ReplyDeleteAdrian, I would have agreed with you about Carol's role but for the fact that it was sent via an on-line seller. Carol probably reminded him though.
DeleteRain or no rain, the view out your kitchen window is simply beautiful. It would take me all day to wash the dishes if I had that view to look at! :)
ReplyDeleteMargaret, I have to say that my view has a huge influence on my life: I spend more time lost in it than is good for my work (so if I washed dishes it would take me for ever).
DeleteThat garden looks fabulous in any weather. Great achievement given the challenges. Midnight light sky - there are bonuses to living at higher latitudes.
ReplyDeleteTigger, the garden has disadvantages because in order to have the view things have to be fairly low and the plants are exposed to every wind except the West Wind (the house shields the garden from it) and that is the one that would do the least harm. Yes but, of course, we pay for it with very short winter days.
DeleteHappy FAther's Day! Great card, sends home the message to stay safe. Beautiful card actually.
ReplyDeleteIf people grasped how much cards mean, then there'd be a card in the slot every week.
Maywyn, thank you. To me cards mean a huge amount which is why I write so many to other people in the hope that they will happify them.
DeleteThere is that wonderful word "happify!"
DeleteGaz chose a great card for you! I hope you enjoyed your day however you spent it. There's never a bad view from your kitchen window, even when there's no view you know what lies beyond. I think I prefer the rainy view for some reason.
ReplyDeletePauline, Sunday is my washing etc day so it carried on as normal. In socialising circumstances if Gaz had been home then it might well have been more socially interesting. I see too much rain and dreich weather so a bit of sun is more my cup of tea.
DeleteI'm rather looking forward to darker evenings. I like eating outdoors in artificial light; we have some particularly good garden lighting, along with the pool underwater lights. It makes for great dining atmosphere.
ReplyDeleteCro, when the evenings get darker here you would not be eating outdoors that's for sure. In fact outdoor eating is not a great pastime on Lewis because when the weather is good enough the midges descend.
DeleteA wonderful picture! Yes, sometimes the sky looks equally beautiful in the opposite direction from the sunset, different but beautiful.
ReplyDeleteThe card is funny - but sadly, it rings true.
Father's Day here is the same as Ascension, which was back in May. My Dad has never been one to celebrate it, either, and so in my family it has always simply meant a day off for everyone.
Yes, the "downhill" thing has been on my mind a lot, too. I am grateful that there won't be a noticeable difference for some weeks.
Meike, Fathers' Day isn't a holiday in the UK. You always make an attempt to see your Dad though. By the time Fathers' Day became established in the UK I was living 450 miles away from my parents so seeing Dad rarely, if ever, happened.
DeleteEvery year my Dad would say on the 22nd June.... 'Well, the nights are drawing in!' He was born in 1908 and died 1991. Father's Day was never 'celebrated' but today I have the third day of the year for special thoughts of him. Lesley
ReplyDeleteLesley, I think of my Dad a lot even all these years after his death nearly 20 years ago at 94. It's usually as a result of something happening or something I come across rather than a specific remembrance date although I do still regard his birthday with some importance.
DeleteI think the view from your kitchen window is wonderful, and the ever changing skies must be a delight each day - and night too, as in your photos.
ReplyDeleteJayCee, the skies here are huge and, as you say, ever changing and I never get tired of them although occasionally a thousand shades of grey gets a bit boring in a way that blue never does.
DeleteThe card brought a wry smile to my face as I absorbed it. Father's Day never existed when we were young did it? I recall Mothering Sunday but a Father's Day, never. Beautiful weather here, sunny and breezy and not a cloud to be seen.
ReplyDeleteRachel, I was trying to remember when Fathers' Day became popular here but I think it was well after I moved to Scotland in '75. Yes, it was Mothering Sunday not Mothers' Day and I did try to get down to see my Mum for that if I could. I'll swap you some cloud and a gale for some sunny sky!
DeleteWho is that fellow on your Father's Day card? He looks like a right tit to me.
ReplyDeleteThe view from your kitchen window is, as they sometimes say, "to die for".
YP, well he's certainly not a left tit that's for sure. I never tire of the view I have to admit. It changes so often too. In those photos, for example, you can't see the mountains of the Scottish Mainland.
DeleteClear to see by the card that your son inherited your sense of humour. :)
ReplyDeleteLove your kitchen window view...even in the rain.
Mary, he does have my sense of humour, that's true. As for the view: what's not to love?
DeleteI like the card, that's a good sense of humour right there, btw you have a nice garden and a beautiful view there.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Amy. The garden and view give me a lot of pleasure (and, with virtual coffees and blogging, have kept me sane during 100 days of isolation).
DeleteOkay, now I'm totally confused, but as that's pretty much par for the course, we can skip it and move on. I thought that the "Mothers' Day" and "Fathers' Day" dates were different in the UK and the USA. Which is why I didn't wish you or CJ a Happy Fathers' Day personally. I figured yours was sometime in August, or sommat. Now I come to find they are the same... but I am fairly sure that the UK Mothers' Day is different from ours. Innit?
ReplyDeleteGood morning, Marcheline. I'm not sure when your Mothers Day is but our is really Mothering Sunday, a religious festival, and was only commercially usurped much later to become Mothers Day. It's always on a Sunday. Mothering Sunday is the fourth Sunday of Lent. Although it's often called Mothers' Day it has no connection with the American festival of that name.
DeleteFather's Day is a Catholic Religious Festival in some European Countries but was a commercially created day in the UK somewhere in the 60s I think. I never celebrated it because it was just a commercial day. It's not a public holiday here.
Followed the link from Rhymes blog.
ReplyDeleteWhat beautiful photos, and the view from your kitchen is amazing.
Good to see you here, Kathy. Yes. My view makes such a difference. I'm very fortunate.
DeleteLate to your Father's Day party. I normally check into your blog every other day to see what you have been up to. The card is brilliant. Made me laugh out loud once it clicked. Father's Day or not, nice that your son shared the joke.
ReplyDeleteAs to Mother's Day and Father's Day, and I don't "observe" either with my own parents, for me (as a mother) EVERY day of the last twentyeight and a bit years is Mother's Day, quietly celebrating the Angel's (that's my son) existence. Which reminds me, last Mother's Day (the day before lockdown started in earnest), at my wish he and I went for a walk in one of the most amazing graveyards in this city. It's very old. And it's idyllic. Nay, lush. And no, I didn't earmark my plot though would love to so I could visit my grave before actually lying in it. Anyway, sadly, though have to find out for sure, that one doesn't actually accept fresh corpses any longer. It was a wonderful day out; that we didn't have picnic there is only due to the Angel having standards. Some years ago, forgive me if I have already told you, my son and I went on a long walk which started and ended in Minstead, New Forest, Hampshire. It is home to Arthur Conan Doyle's and his wife's grave. The grave fairly overgrown, no demarcations; I couldn't quite make out what it said on the gravestone. So I got closer; the Angel, positively horrified: "MAMA, you are STANDING on him!"
I'd love to send you some of our gorgeous weather which has arrived just in time for a total breakdown of social distancing. One minute people TRY to observe the 2 m, now, so it appears, we are all "immune". A herd. Just in time for Brexit. Giving the Cliffs of Dover a whole new meaning.
Greetings Graham (I like alliteration),
U
Ursula, my erratic blogging doesn't help matters but, on the other hand, I usually keep looking back at blogs to make sure that I've answered everyone - obviously I see the comments in my emails but I don't always answer them immediately.
DeleteOn the subject of graves I, too, enjoy old graveyards but so far as my body is concerned that will not be taking up any space.
I thought I had already responded to this post....I must have dreamed that I did!
ReplyDeleteYour longest day was our shortest day down this way.
My brother's and my father never played a role in our lives so Father's Day was never observed/celebrated by us through our childhood and beyond.
However, when Randall and I were married I always received great pleasure out of spoiling his Dad on Father's Day...because my father-in-law was a lovely man, and it was always a joy to spoil him.
A special lunch was the feature of the day...catered by me...in his honour. And I loved the way Father's eyes would sparkle when he saw his special desserts. He loved desserts. And I always gave him chocolate-coated ginger as part of his gift because he loved choc-coated ginger. :)
Another "Oops" Lee. I forgot to come snd respond to your comment although I read it in my mail. I should not have forgotten about the comment because of the chocolate-coated ginger. I rarely see that now but I do get divine chocolate-coated ginger biscuits from Border Biscuits.
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