By: Blonde Two
You will have noticed, I am sure, that it is now lighter for longer in the evenings. I have it on good authority that the collective sigh that we outdoor lovers heaved when the clocks changed could be heard from outer space. By outdoor lovers here, I mean us people who love the outdoors, not those who prefer their nuptials al fresco – although, of course one could be both (please don’t respond to the urge to comment on this).
Warning – I am about to become very British and talk about the weather …
Of course, the term British Summertime has become a bit of a confusion over the last few years with hot Easters and rainy Augusts but we mustn’t moan, the sun has shone on us for a couple of days now so we will all be happy for a while.
Weather alert over, go back to your lives …
All this is proof that nature has its own way of doing things and is not likely to respond to us pinning labels like “Summer”, “Bank Holiday” or “Camping Trip” on it. It does make you wonder if we would be happier without calendars and clocks – we could go out when it was sunny and go to work when it rained. We could have a barbecue on a mild November evening and wear scarves on the beach in August. We wouldn’t have to pay a fortune to go abroad and find sunshine at the “right time”, we could just go out in the sun whenever it was there.
I have mentioned before that we can see Dartmoor from our house. It is not that close but I can see it when I sit up in bed in the morning. Not only is our view of Dartmoor a daily reminder of my favourite thing, it serves as a natural calendar. I think I must be in tune with the concept of midsummer (cue hippy headdress) – as a girl, I used to climb the Malvern Hills to see the sunrise on Midsummer’s morning and two of my children were born on midsummer’s day (no, they are not twins). Because of this, when we had our first summer in our Dartmoor view house, I was thrilled to notice that the sun set exactly behind Haytor on midsummer’s day.
We get some amazing sunsets here and Dartmoor always looks fabulous in pinks and oranges. I love to watch them each night and note how far along the moors they have got (they haven’t quite reached Hamel Down yet this year). There is a twinge of sadness when midsummer comes and the sun dips down behind Haytor because I know that it is going to start slipping back the other way and the days are going to get shorter again.
But let’s not worry about that for now. Today, the sun has been shining on us and tomorrow the day will be even longer. Long Live British Summertime!
Blonde 1 where do you see the sun rise? It would be nice to know where your followers wake up!
Unfortunately I live in a dip and only see the sun after climbing out of the dip! It rises out of the Teignmouth estuary and is usually so stunning that I want to stop the car and admire it for a while!
We have similar thoughts/conversations in our house every year as the sun sets over Western Beacon – I got a bit annoyed when the next door neighbours tree grew so big we could no longer see the spectacle, but somehow managed to drop enough hints, that they cut it down and now we have a wonderful uninterupted view of Western Beacon, Ugbrough Beacon, PIles Hill. And haven’t the sunsets been spectacular this week? I don’t think I’ve ever seen the sun so red!
That reminds me of a funny but very bad story of our neighbours who were fed up with the cherry tree blocking their Dartmoor view and clubbed together to chop it down. We had nothing whatsoever to do with such a wicked thing but do now have some rather nice firewood.
Oooo cherry burns very nicely -any spare?!!!! x
You will have to fight Mr B2 for it. It takes a bit of effort to get going but once it is, it is very lovely and smells nice (not as nice as apple though).
Perhaps, when Scotland achieves complete separation from the UK (except geographically of course) , we can get rid of the silly clock changing process twice a year and adopt central European time.
As I understand it, the whole clock changing farce was instilled to help the northern farmers and school children
Well, today school children don’t walk to school and farmers work with the powerful lights on tractors.
I don’t usually see the sunrise, but Easter Day saw me on top of a hill with a lot of other folk, contemplating the fact that although my watch said 0615, my body said it was only 0515 – and Charles, I agree with every word!