WORLD CHOCOLATE DAY

       Today is a day I really like. Or in other words , I like chocolate. World Chocolate day is thought to celebrate the introduction of chocolate into Europe in 1550.

     There are several other days celebrating chocolate. 

     National chocolate day is a U.S. date celebrated Oct 28. 

    Candy makers have a day designated to celebrate chocolate. 

    So I like chocolate but there's no chocolate in the house to celebrate with. 

    I hope you will find some chocolate to celebrate World chocolate day. 

COLLEAGUES

      This fine group meets a couple of times a year for lunch. 

      We came to the same school from 1968 to 1972. Three of us stayed in the same school for more than 20 years. Three of us went into administration. 

      We were young and did not have much experience. There was an older staff member Cliff, who joined the staff at the same time we did. Cliff took a liking to us and to some extent put us under his wing. We spent many good times together socially and professionally. 

      Our fearless leader retired. A few years after he retired, he organized a lunch. We all quickly agreed. He even had us to his house and cooked the meal. We enjoyed these times together. 

     Cliff passed away and we still meet for lunches. It's always pleasant to get back together. 

     I'm the oldest at 84.  A couple of the younger ones are in their late 70's.

      

MY 83rd SUMMER SOLSTICE

     I like special days like summer solstice. I have always thought about the longest day of the year even as a child. Well, I probably missed the first half dozen. 

     I only attended a summer solstice celebration once. I was living in Inuvik NWT. Some of us would climb up a hill just south of town. We had a good supply of hotdogs and beer. We would wait until midnight. Now at that latitude we had 24 hour daylight . We'd had 24 hour daylight for about 3 weeks. So the getting together was not for celebrating the longest day but solstice itself. So gradually we would wander off home (no cars) and appear a little bleary eyed a work the next morning. 

   So here ae todays numbers: 

             sunrise 5:13 AM

             sunset 10:00 PM

             Daylight hours 16:47

      The photos are not from today but a few years ago. I was out for a bike ride when I took these photos. 

     The sun shining on the north side of  house about 9:20 PM

    Just before sundown.

     10:00 PM in my back yard.