Happy Solstice ...

Things on my mind today ...
By design, National Aboriginal Day falls on the solstice.
Whether by coincidence or not, Gay Pride celebrations coincide with the solstice.
A time of turning points and balance, marking the end of the time when the veil between the worlds is thinnest ...
Midsummer, Alban Heruin, Feast of St. John the Baptist, Gathering Day, Feast of Epona and others ...
Whether or not any of this has any meaning for you,
Bright Blessings

• Wednesday, I drove S to Olds on QEII, then W to 22, over the Crowsnest, across and up to Nelson, B.C. I got in early enough to spend a little time with the girls before bedtime, then Patty and I stayed up way too late yacking.
• Thursday and Friday, we were up early to get the girls off to school twice, prepared and loaded everything we were going to need for the morning into the van twice, had tea at the house with the Moms' group so they could give Patty a birthday present once, realized we didn't have keys for the van once, loaded it all into Epona and left a message for Jaime to please stop at home and swap vehicles on the way to school once, went up to the school for Sarah's Class 1 play once, went back to the house with Jaime in Epona to vehicles 'cuz he missed the message once, went to Raye and Ally's Fathers' Day/Last Day of School potluck in the Kinderhouse once, tidied up the classroom twice, moved the Class 1 things into the Class 2 room once, packed up the Raye and Ally and took them around town while we ran errands two or three times, went home and made dinner twice, visited the new house of one of the Moms from the Moms' group once, greeted and unpacked Barbara and Anailese, Chelsea and Bernie once, had dinner a couple of times, had a birthday party at the old church that's now a yoga space once (after gathering more than enough folks for a whole party at Patty and Jaime's house first), hugged and kissed and talked and chased and tickled and listened and read stories and played and laughed about a bazillion times.
• Saturday, Sarah, Raye, Ally, Barbara, Anailese, Bernie and both dogs came to wake me up. The rest of the morning was a bit rushed 'cuz it took them a while to get organized and I couldn't very well get up and get started before I was formally woken up! After breakfast, I drove home (same route in reverse, except that I took QEII all the way from Ft. McLeod), unpacked and collapsed.
• 1912 km. (much of it mountain driving) on 72L of fuel ... 3.766L/100 km. ... that's 62.5 mpg US/75 mpg Imperial. Not bad.
• Sunday I packed up and drove out to the lake for Fathers' Day ... I had a bit of a start when I came around the corner and saw the empty driveway ... I thought, "CRAP! It's in the city!?" ... but the cars were all parked on the other side of the road. Whew! It was a lovely day! On the way home, I stopped at Mary's for a minute (which generally takes me several hours).
• Birthday weinie roast yesterday got rained out and moved indoors ... about twenty women and Pete ... hot dogs and sushi (and other treats)
• I did not take a single picture.

Stuff and Nonsense ...

Daylight:

Length of day: 17:00
Hours of dark: 5:12
Sunrise: 5:06 am
Sunset: 10:06 pm
Start of twilight: 4:14 am
End of twilight: 10:58 pm

Current weather: Mostly Clear. 14°C (57°F), wind WNW 11.2 km/h (7 mph), relative humidity 67%, pressure 30.1 in Hg.

Forecast:

Today.. Sunny then mix of sun and cloud with 30% chance of showers late this afternoon. Risk of a thunderstorm. Wind becoming NW 20 km/h near noon. High 22°C.
Tonight.. Cloudy periods. 30% chance of showers early this evening with risk of thunderstorms. Low 9°C.
Thursday.. Cloudy with sunny periods and 40% chance of showers. High 22°C.
Friday.. Cloudy with 60% chance of showers. Low 12°C. High 22°C.
Saturday.. Sunny. Low 7°C. High 24°C.
Sunday.. A mix of sun and cloud. Low 10°C. High 22°C.
Normals for the period.. Low 8°C. High 22°C.