I hope all of you have a lovely summer* solstice.

Wild plants and introduced perennials that are blooming in my yard today, at 65 degrees North latitude:
Wild roses, bluebells (almost done blooming), irises (just starting to open), "moe" (a low-growing wild plant with delicate tiny white flowers; I don't remember its full name), lowbush blueberries, soapberries (a.k.a. dwarf dogwood), lilacs, trollius, peonies, columbine, honeysuckle, red currant, strawberries. And dandelions, of course.

We had a gorgeous, sunny, hot** day Tuesday and expect another on Wednesday. The sun dips below the horizon between 1 am and 3 am, but it isn't going to get dark until August. Ahhh . . . summer!

What's it like in your corner of the world at the solstice?

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*Have a lovely summer solstice if in the northern hemisphere; if in the southern, have a lovely winter solstice.
**"hot" = upper 70s Fahrenheit. Yes, I know we're heat wimps, but it feels hot to us. Those who did not live through 6 weeks of Dec-Jan during which it never got warmer than -20 F may not understand.

Happy solstice and summer time too!
Can't compete with the day length, Sarah Here at 57deg North we got a 18 hour sun-above-horizon day, sunset 10pm, rise 4am. And it is sunny today and warm. Thinking of braving the cool sea...
Foxglove flowering in my flower bed, for me the sign of summer-has-arrived. The gorse in the dunes still flowering, heather not quite. A cuckoo calls now and again, and crazy young birds everywhere.
The song continuous.
Eating strawberries from my greenhouse.
Everything is much later this year, about a month setback from a very cold spring.
Fire and music tonight I hope!

Happy Solstice, and don't forget to harvest your Mugwort and St. John's Wort on St. John's Day (Midsummer, 24th June)!

It's been in the 90s here. Our Spigelia marilandica, Rudbeckia maxima, Echinacea purpurea, Baptisia alba, Eryngium yuccifolium, five other species of Rudbeckia are all in bloom. The gold finches are happy as most of these have seeds they enjoy. I also have Lobelia cardinalis in bloom. It usually doesn't do so until August so things are little out of whack. Can't wait till the fall when the temps get livable again.

Happy 149th Birthday West Virginia!
Although today is a state holiday, it's not a holiday for WVU.

http://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/us/ ... rginia-day

Party on Pagans!

We live across from the James Rivah from the mouth of the Pagan River. I think most everybody over there are Baptist and Methodists, of course the river was named for the pecan trees along it's banks.

At 40 degrees latitude we also have many plants blooming in our yard, including roses, lilies, geraniums, oak leaf hydrangeas, hibiscus, and many others. My bed of elephant ears have leafed out and are doing fine. Our tomato plants have a lot of green tomatoes on them. After an early Spring we are now having extremely dry weather conditions with no rain in sight. I probably will put out the sprinklers again today, although my wife will yell at me when she sees the water bill. Happy solstice, everyone.

Hazmat suits? Now that's my kind of party.

Cisterns, get some large pvc pipe to hook the gutters up, it's not just for flutes anymore.

It's about 32 C here (That's 90 F, for those of you south of the border.) with the promise of more of the same tomorrow. It's been a dry spring, but the rain barrels are full, so we're good for awhile. Now if it would just drop below 20 at night, so we could cool the house down.

It seems like it is finally summer; with three hot, rainless days in a row. The native plant garden is looking good. My one mature sticky geranium, Amsinckias and my elk horn Clarkias have been blooming for a while now. My Hooker’s (a last name, not the occupation) evening primroses are making lots of flower buds. My Jessica’s asters are taking off, which is good as it is endangered. Most every new plant as well as the old ones already there have done well so far. The long-toed salamander larvae are getting really large in my yard pond. The salamanders show up and breed in there almost every spring.

I am also writing a sermon to give in the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Palouse. I am a member of our Nature Covenant and we have the Solstice Sunday service to perform.

I was wondering if you were in midnight sun latitudes Sarah. Too hot here in the Mid-Atlantic this week. Not complaining, per se, it will change...that's one thing we can count on.

What's it like in the UK? Overcast with occasional showers, but fairly warm. A typical English Summer, really.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jun/22/isle-of-wight-heavy-rain-soaking?newsfeed=true