Happy (slightly belated) Solstice!

We've never lived this far north before, so the extremely pronounced differences in daylight between summer and winter have been very noticeable here! We're at approximately 50°50' N, which is about the same latitude as Calgary, Alberta. So when the summer solstice came around yesterday, we marveled at the over 17 hours (!) between sunrise and sunset.

Unfortunately yesterday was overcast so I couldn't get a good picture of the sunset, but tonight I got a pretty decent photo of it from our bedroom window. I couldn't figure out how to get the time to display on the photo so you'll just have to trust me when I say that I took it at exactly 9:55 PM, about five minutes BEFORE sunset! You can't see the sun because it had already passed behind the church down the street, but from the color of the sky you can definitely tell that the sun is still around! It's 10:27 PM as I write this, and there's still light enough to see. It's really nice in summertime, but after experiencing the flip side in winter I can tell you that that end of the pendulum isn't nearly as pleasant!

Anyway, we're very much enjoying summertime here in northwestern Europe, and we hope all of you are having a great summer as well! Happy barbecuing!