Tag: summer

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More on summer

Since we live in Colorado, it is more or less mandatory that we go camping and/or backpacking each summer.

Hardship, you mutter.

Well, yes, it’s true that I relish leaving our neck of suburbia to head for the hills. But I also appreciate sleeping in a normal bed.

Anyhow, my sons and I went for an overnight near Silver Plume. I tried to find a good backpacking book for Colorado, which you might think would be easy to find. No. So I punted. We went to the Georgetown tourist info booth and got some simple maps for the nearby mountains. We headed left – and up – from Silver Plume. Ben and I camped at the nearest flat spot (an old trail).

Jay and his buddy Nathan did a survival night – no tent, no sleeping bag. Thankfully, no rain either. I was proud of them – but I’ll leave it at the fact that they melted their two ponchos and ate a very large breakfast with Ben and I late the next morning.

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Summer solstice

Today is the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere. I took this shot off our front porch yesterday evening at 8:35. (Hand-held, point-and-shoot.)

When we lived in the south of England, I always made a big deal of the longest day – because it was long! (Inevitably, the evening was cloudy, so we couldn’t enjoy the brightness in its full glory.) Then, when we lived on the equator (in Kenya), the longest day of the year had maybe 15 minutes less daylight than the shortest day.

When I put a post on Facebook recently about summer evenings, my friend Bob, who lives in Bradford, England, noted that the dark of his nights lasts just 6 hours. Then Veli, my friend in Finland noted that his lasts just 3. It’s all relative.

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