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June 20, 2005
Happy Solstice!
No school today! It's Solstice! Today is all about the Sun.
Image courtesy of SOHO (ESA and NASA.)
Would you like to see what the Sun is up to today? You can find out at SpaceWeather.com.
And, unfortunately, today is really about the power of the Sun. Our air conditioner decided to die last night, and no one will fix it before tomorrow afternoon. Joy.
We've got a Sun piñata half finished. The plan was to make cupcakes and/or cookies today, but I'm not turning on the oven. We'll barbecue tonight, and watch the full moon rise.
The Summer Solstice and the full Moon. What a perfect combination! Life goes in cycles, and the Summer Solstice and the full Moon represent the same spot on the cycle: You shine when you're at the top ... but there's nowhere to go from there but down. It's not as depressing an idea as it sounds like, because we celebrate the oppostite in winter: when things are as dark as they can be, the light is already on its way. This is a good time to read Aesop's fable about the ant and the grasshopper. The ant works in the summer because he knows about the cycles of the earth, and he knows the warm weather and abundance of food will not last. The grasshopper doesn't figure it out until it's too late.
Now that we've got a fable for the day, here's the poem for the day:
The Summer Sun
by Robert Louis Stevenson
GREAT is the sun, and wide he goes
Through empty heaven without repose;
And in the blue and glowing days
More thick than rain he showers his rays.
Though closer still the blinds we pull
To keep the shady parlour cool,
Yet he will find a chink or two
To slip his golden fingers through.
Above the hills, along the blue,
Round the bright air with footing true,
To please the child, to paint the rose,
The gardener of the World, he goes.
Have fun, all. Maybe we'll go to the pool ...
Posted by lynx at June 20, 2005 10:47 PM
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Comments
Happy holiday! We're reading Elsa Beskow's _Flower Festival_ and hoping Daisy's current client goes into labor soon so the poor lady doesn't melt in the heat! We figure that between the Solstice and the full moon, tonight may be the night.
Posted by: Mungo at June 21, 2005 12:11 PM
And a happy solstice to you, too. I'm printing the poem for dd to see if she wants to draw a picture for it, or heck even memorize it. We've been listening to 'Here Comes the Sun' today and the moon rising tonight is supposed to be a moon illusion. I read on Nasa Science News that it's supposed to appear larger at the horizon then it has in years.
Posted by: Shawna at June 21, 2005 1:30 PM
happy day, indeed! we spent a good part of it at the pool, then went biking and now i'm computing on the porch while annie drifts to sleep out here. It is just too nice to go in...
Posted by: elisabeth at June 21, 2005 10:45 PM