PC 446 Mid-Summer

For those of my readers who live in the Southern Hemisphere, and especially those in South Island New Zealand whose north has been ravaged by torrential rains, you’re moving, albeit slowly, towards Spring and warmer weather. Here the summer equinox passed a fortnight ago and we will gradually slide towards Autumn. But now it really is mid-summer!

Many years ago I was curious about the lack of symmetry of our sunrise/sunset times and created a chart showing exactly how it is. I find it fascinating, but understand if you shrug your shoulders and say: ‘So what?’

You can see that here the sunset time reaches its latest some days before the sunrise time reaches its earliest.

Our apartment in Amber House is what an estate agent would call a duplex (note 1), as well as having a double aspect, our living room’s 3m tall windows facing both east and west. Although it doesn’t have a sea view, it catches the early morning and late afternoon sun at certain times of the year. Additionally at mid-summer we observe the wonders of the celestial movements of both sun and earth. Every year hundreds of people gather at Stonehenge in Wiltshire to watch the midsummer sunrise.

I must admit I’ve always liked the alternative view, that the henge was built to celebrate the winter solstice, marking the time when days started getting longer.

On the summer solstice in Hove, the sun rose at 0447 on a bearing of 048deg, almost Northeast. By 0640 (Note 2) it was high enough to be over the houses on the other side of Albany Villas and its rays were pouring into our living room.

Then, a day later, when the sun is sinking towards its 2115 set, on a bearing of 312deg, almost Northwest, we experience something rather false.

Red sunrise rays, yellow reflected rays

At around 1940 the sun’s rays bounced off a window on a house across the street and poured into our living room, illuminating the photograph of Celina’s parents, just like the rising sun had the day before.

I think by now we are all aware of our changing climate. The arguments about whether human activity is responsible for all of it, some of it, or whether the planet will grow warmer, whether we like it or not, will go on and on. However, its effects are already being felt. There was an interesting chart on the BBC News the other evening. It showed how the likelihood of June temperatures in the UK being above 30°C has increased over 70 years. In the 1960s there were one or possibly two days in the month, now it’s more like 8-10. And we can expect shorter, more intense weather, whether it be temperatures or floods.

I don’t think it’ll happen in my lifetime but ‘Families Like Ours’ was an interesting television drama broadcast recently. It featured Denmark, a country I know well from business forays and as a sailor. Climate Change was causing rising sea levels in the Baltic, so much so that the government decided the country could no longer exist ….. and everyone had to leave. Go where, you might ask? Watch it for a glimpse of what may happen.

In Britain the seasons are marked with traditional events. In mid-Summer The Wimbledon Tennis Tournament (23^rd June – 13^th July 2025) is preceded by the Lexus Eastbourne Open (21^st – 29^th June 2025) if tennis is your thing. My dental hygienist Jennyis a great fan and had tickets for both Eastbourne and for Wimbledon. Cricket Tests against India have started and the Henley Rowing Regatta (1^st – 6^th July 2025) is a wonderful example of Britishness. ‘Glastonbury’ (Note 3) 25^th – 29^th June was just one of many festivals around the country, that feature not only ‘pop’ music but classical, often in the grounds of some stately home. And midsummer would not be complete without strawberries and cream and maybe a glass of Pimms!

Over my lifetime I have learned how to navigate over the land, using a paper map and a compass and over the seas, using a mixture of charts, compass sightings of land features, ‘dead reckoning’, working with boat speed, leeway, tide and time, and on longer passages with a sexton for sun shots. The advent of Global Positioning Systems has changed forever the way we now move from A to B, but the basic knowledge is ingrained in my DNA, as is the need to understand where people are!

Recently Celina told me her mother was going off to a religious retreat in France. ‘Where abouts?’ I asked. “Near Poitier – Bonnevaux.” France is the size of the USA’s state Montana; demographically the former has a population of some 68 million people, whereas Montana only 1.1 million. So, despite travelling in France and finding parts of it are ‘empty’, it has a density of 123 people per square kilometre, compared with Montana’s 18, which is really empty! I dived onto Google Maps to search for Bonnevaux and found one north of Montpellier. A further question revealed that the retreat is in the Abbaye de Bonnevaux Centre ‘pour le paix’, near the village of Marçay ….. near Poitier. The WhatsApp message came with warning – ‘mobile phones are kind-of banned’!

The Abbaye de Bonnevaux

Peace in midsummer.

Richard 4^th July 2025

Hove

http://www.postcardscribbles.co.uk

Note 1 An apartment on two floors. In our case our bedrooms are at the lower ground level, which has the advantage of being quieter.

Note 2 On the north coast of Scotland, in the northern hemisphere, on the longest day, the sun rises at 0403 and sets at 2225.

Note 3 The first music festival to be held at Worthy Down Farm was called the Pilton Pop, Folk and Blues Festival and took place in 1970. It was attended by 1500 people who paid an admission charge of £1 which included free camping and free milk. Twelve thousand people attended the first festival named ‘Glastonbury’ which took place the following year.