Mid-June and already summer is feeling tired. The early spring growth is over and the fresh spring greens have turned dark and the woodlands are overgrown. The drought has taken its toll this year too and everything is looking dry, dusty and worn out.
I’m tired too. I love to be in tune with the rhythm of the seasons but at this time of the year it’s hard! At ten in the evening I start to pull the curtains, load the dishwasher, draw glasses of water to put on our bedside tables and amble slowly off to bed. It’s an early start in the morning and I like to be prepared. But nature thinks differently. It’s still light outside. I pull the blinds in our bedroom, draw the curtains and try to eradicate those chinks at the side of the window where the light still creeps through. In the morning, it’s worse. 4.30 a.m. in the morning and the first light appears. The blackbird is already singing outside my window. I turn over, pull the covers over my head and try to go back to sleep. At the weekends it’s worse. I need a lie in! Doesn’t nature understand?
Years ago, friends who were older and wiser than us used every bit of sunlight to their best advantage. In March, dressed in their overcoats, they sat on their front doorstep, with steaming hot mugs of coffee, welcoming the first rays of sunshine. Crazy! We shivered indoors and turned the central heating up. In June we welcomed the onset of real summer. They, in turn, started to lament the onset of winter! The solstice, for them, marked the beginning of the end and the long, depressing descent into winter and darkness! We laughed at them in those days and thought their world was upside down. Now we are beginning to understand. But we are also looking forward to getting some better sleep as the solstice passes and the hours of daylight start to decrease to manageable proportions.
Summer in northern Europe doesn’t last long. In a few short weeks it will all be over and we’ll be getting our thick sweaters and winter boots out of the cupboard again. Still, take heart! We can soon snuggle down under the covers and catch up on our sleep and, come mid-December and the winter solstice, we can get ready for summer sunshine again and rejoice that the days are 'drawing out’! It’s a topsy-turvy world!
Years ago, friends who were older and wiser than us used every bit of sunlight to their best advantage. In March, dressed in their overcoats, they sat on their front doorstep, with steaming hot mugs of coffee, welcoming the first rays of sunshine. Crazy! We shivered indoors and turned the central heating up. In June we welcomed the onset of real summer. They, in turn, started to lament the onset of winter! The solstice, for them, marked the beginning of the end and the long, depressing descent into winter and darkness! We laughed at them in those days and thought their world was upside down. Now we are beginning to understand. But we are also looking forward to getting some better sleep as the solstice passes and the hours of daylight start to decrease to manageable proportions.
Summer in northern Europe doesn’t last long. In a few short weeks it will all be over and we’ll be getting our thick sweaters and winter boots out of the cupboard again. Still, take heart! We can soon snuggle down under the covers and catch up on our sleep and, come mid-December and the winter solstice, we can get ready for summer sunshine again and rejoice that the days are 'drawing out’! It’s a topsy-turvy world!
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