Almost in the blink of an eye the Summer Solstice is here

While it’s a theory I’ll never be able to prove empirically, I’m quite convinced that in the world of newspapers, time seems to pass that bit quicker, often morphing into quite a sprint.

Deadlines tend to have that kind of impact on the passing days with often the date for the next edition typed into a story or a column a week ahead of schedule.

I’m inclined to pinch myself and say: “Is Midsummer’s Day really upon us next week?” – sneaking up on all of us with the stealth of a crafty pickpocket who has done the job one hundred times before.

The reality is that on Wednesday next, June 21, we will be marking the day of the Summer Solstice when the sun is at its highest point in the Northern Hemisphere sky – 60 degrees – a time when under clear skies, real darkness never arrives.

Coming from a country background, it is of course a time of year that we all associate with the great outdoors in terms of footing turf, saving hay, making silage and maybe having ‘a deoch or two’ in daylight, even though the clock is ticking towards 11pm.

Through an east facing bedroom window, there is quite the awesome night-time experience of waking up on a clear night in a brightened room at 3 o clock in the morning even though there’s no light switch on . . . natural light just refuses to fully die in Midsummer.

In my local village of Abbeyknockmoy there were always two events of Midsummer that topped both the work and pleasure agendas during our longest days, with both of them arriving in quick succession.

One was the traditional bonfire on the eve (June 23) of St. John’s Day and the other was  the fair in the local village the following morning, when we could expect calls before 6am to round up the lambs for the Summer sale.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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