East coast bias

Everyone is talking about the Solstice today, but for us left-coasters, the astronomical event actually ocurred last night (22 h 46 m PDT). Regardless, today is the first official day of summer. Here in the State of Jefferson, we have cool temperatures and partly cloudy skies. Summer here is usually quite hot, and one can go weeks without seeing a cloud. I'm not a big fan of desert summer climate, so I've been enjoying the spring-like conditions. The Celts started their summer about halfway between the Vernal Equinox and the Summer Solstice, the so-called Beltaine, the cross-quarter day often celebrated as May Day. The Solstice, to them, was Midsummer or High Summer. That way they had several weeks of lenghthening days before the longest day happened. So, Happy Midsummer!