Fresh New Snow

     Yesterday we got about 15 cm (6 in.) of fresh snow. We had a good snow cover before and this added to the accumulation. My ski trail is in excellent condition. I had to get busy with the snow shovel!

     Temperatures have been  from minus 15 ( 2 F) to minus 10(12 F) . The sun set this afternoon at 4:25 and will rise tomorrow morning at 8:27 AM so that means we have 7 hours and 58 minutes of sun. We lose another two minutes in the afternoon and then it stops. The sun sets at 4:23 for about 7 days and then we start gaining in the afternoon again. We still lose time in the morning. We do get long beautiful sunrises and sunsets.

My heavily loaded juniper.

A little snow on the roof!

Up the snowy street.

Further up the snowy street

Spruce full of snow

I'm enjoying my snow although many people disagree with me. I hope you enjoy  a look at the snow.

First Day of Summer

        The first day of summer is sort of a let down as we have had beautiful weather for some time. The important thing for me about the first day of summer is the amount of daylight we get on the longest day of the year. Where I live the sun rises at 5:14 AM and sets at 10:00PM. So we get 16 hours and 46 minutes of sunshine. With the long evenings we get , it doesn't get dark until 11:00PM and it starts to get light about 3:00 AM.

       With days that have so many hours of sunlight our plants develop rapidly. It is a very lush time of the year as far as plants are concerned.

       Ancient people always knew approximately when the longest day of the year was and celebrated appropriately.

       I spent five years in the Arctic and have never forgotten the 24 hours of sunlight for about six weeks. It seemed to energize me and I enjoyed summer.

      So on this longest day of the year I have to say how very enjoyable it is to celebrate the benefits we receive from the sun's energy.

     

You Know It's Spring When...

      You know it's spring when you get up to cook breakfast and you don't have to turn the lights on! This morning when I came out to the kitchen  the room was light and there was no need to turn on lights. What a treat! The sun rose at 7:01 and tonight it sets at 6:29 so we get about 11  1/2 hours of sunlight.



Three Porridge bowls



      Now I will enjoy this treat for only four more days as the time changes to daylight savings time. Then I will be making breakfast in the dark for a few weeks. When the time does change we will instantly get long evenings. So next week the sun will set between 7:35 and 7:40. It will be very pleasant for evening walks from now on.

    So it doesn't matter what end we get the daylight on it still means the days are getting longer.