BS: First day of summer .....

Subject: RE: BS: First day of summer .....
From: Donuel
Date: 22 Jun 22 - 07:42 AM

Indeed, Nanuck and Regnarock will get constant sun except when it goes behind a hill for 5 minutes. But they will get less intense sun because it spreads over a larger area.

Subject: RE: BS: First day of summer .....
From: ragdall
Date: 22 Jun 22 - 05:07 AM

We will get 17hours and 8 minutes of daylight today. A joy of living Northish. How much sun we will see is yet to be determined.
rags

Subject: RE: BS: First day of summer .....
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 21 Jun 22 - 08:06 PM

Well we got wall-to-wall sun here in Bude today, that's two such days in a row. Tomorrow promises the same. The barbecue is in full flow. It's not going to last, so carpe diem is the motto!

Subject: RE: BS: First day of summer .....
From: keberoxu
Date: 21 Jun 22 - 08:04 PM

hope yours was happy.
mine was as depressed as I can remember.

Subject: RE: BS: First day of summer .....
From: Donuel
Date: 21 Jun 22 - 07:17 PM

The first day of summer (6-21) will be about 15 hours and 45 minutes of light.

Subject: RE: BS: First day of summer .....
From: Donuel
Date: 15 Jun 22 - 12:41 PM

I have 4 pandemic cavities but my dentist disappeared, drill, receptionist and office.

Subject: RE: BS: First day of summer .....
From: Senoufou
Date: 15 Jun 22 - 02:24 AM

You're right keberoxu, 21st June. And I have an appointment with the d-d-d-d-dentist on that day! Gaaaagh! (Just a check-up, but I absolutely detest going to the dentist.)

Subject: RE: BS: First day of summer .....
From: keberoxu
Date: 14 Jun 22 - 09:44 PM

The summer solstice will be here soon.

Subject: RE: BS: First day of summer .....
From: Donuel
Date: 12 Jun 22 - 10:31 AM

Paintings done outdoors in the summer are forever embedded with identifying pollen. If art is at the center of your life, life will be the center of your art but always with a touch of death for honesty's sake.
Truth is more dangerous than a dogma but if the art lasts longer than the prohibition of a truth of the times it will last longer in an artist's death than in life. I suppose that explains how Dogs Playing Poker survives since we know 'life connives' and bluffs.

Subject: RE: BS: First day of summer .....
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 10 Jun 22 - 09:06 AM

Mebbe it's not the oilseed rape pollen that's the problem, but the chemicals that English farmers in particular bomb them with throughout the season. And there I was, thinking there'd be less rape grown now we're out of the Common Market (farmers live to screw the Common Agricultural Policy). Now Vlad goes and causes the West to cut down on real oil exports, so rape will need to be grown here for its original purpose: machine oil substitute.

For completeness: round here, there's puddles of blue among the yellow, where farmers are growing linseed. More home-grown cricket bats?

Also for completeness: a colleague (in a previous existence) said he had to give up bee-keeping, as his bees went preferentially for the rape flowers. The resultant honey, he said, set like concrete.

Subject: RE: BS: First day of summer .....
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 10 Jun 22 - 08:38 AM

I do take Piriton very occasionally. I need an antihistamine to bring down swelling from a wasp (and some other bites/stings?) sting. I don't have any hay fever type allergies I know of. For me, I've not noticed any side effect with it.

Subject: RE: BS: First day of summer .....
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 10 Jun 22 - 07:20 AM

Piriton knocks me senseless. I have to avoid it. Even those one-a day jobs that are supposed to be non-drowsy zonk me out to the point when I'm not fit to drive. You sleep well on them though! ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: First day of summer .....
From: Senoufou
Date: 10 Jun 22 - 06:14 AM

You may well be right Steve. Before he arrived in UK he'd never had any contact with either pollen or cleaning products (!) so these things must have given his system several shocks. Piriton is effective apparently for his hay fever, but it dopes him up alarmingly.
And I seem to remember that farmers spray neonicotinoids on oilseed rape, which harms bees etc. Not good.

Subject: RE: BS: First day of summer .....
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 10 Jun 22 - 05:56 AM

Incidentally, if he's working with cleaning products, and he feels poorly...

Subject: RE: BS: First day of summer .....
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 10 Jun 22 - 05:10 AM

Oddly, on continental Europe, where oilseed rape is a major crop, no such concerns are aired. Poor old oilseed is incredibly conspicuous when in flower and it has a strong aroma too. But it flowers when much tree pollen is still being released and it is still in flower when the grass pollen season kicks in. It can be attacked by fungi which release billions of spores, a possible suspect. Basically, there's too much else going on when rape is in flower to directly implicate its pollen in causing harm.

As I said, I don't like this crop plant. It requires huge inputs of nitrogenous fertiliser and it needs several treatments with fungicides and insecticides. You'll always see those tractor tracks in its fields. It can never be grown as an organic crop and it's a major monoculture culprit. Along with maize (my personal most hated crop), it is responsible for much nitrogenous runoff into waterways. And when it's grown anywhere near me I get a plague of slugs and pollen beetle. So I'm not sticking up for it, but the CPS wouldn't dream of prosecuting it for causing allergies, what with the complete lack of anything other than anecdotal evidence!

Subject: RE: BS: First day of summer .....
From: Senoufou
Date: 10 Jun 22 - 03:11 AM

Well my African husband is always poleaxed by being anywhere near a field of oilseed rape. He's now living in a bedsit in a nearby town, but behind the building is a field of ... yes! oilseed rape! And it's making him so poorly. On top of this, the school where he works as a cleaner has the same crop in a nearby field. Poor chap, he's doped up with Piriton.
Yesterday, a quite normal phenomenon for mid-June arrived: a massive swarm of honey bees buzzing in a thick black cloud right in front of my bench in the garden. I'm not afraid of bees or wasps, but I didn't want them zooming down my chimney pot. Luckily they buzzed noisily off up the road. Chap in our village keeps bees, so maybe they were his.

Subject: RE: BS: First day of summer .....
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 09 Jun 22 - 06:20 PM

There is little or no evidence that oilseed crops cause adverse reactions. First, the pollen is heavy (the plant wants insects to pick up and transfer the pollen grains) and the measured levels of airborne pollen is extremely low even a short distance from crop fields. Second, while it's faintly possible that volatile compounds emitted by the plants could be implicated, the evidence just isn't there. Take a look at this piece extracted from the BMJ, which looks critically at what evidence there is and which doesn't rely on received wisdom:

"The health effects of oilseed rape: myth or reality?" (That'll get you there).

I'm not a fan of oilseed rape because it creates a major pollen beetle problem and because it's a monoculture that relies heavily on chemical inputs. We have a farm near us that grows it over dozens of acres. There's a public footpath through the middle of it; last time I walked it when the crop was in full bloom the silence was eerie, no insects, no birdsong. But blaming it for allergies, etc., may be justified in rare cases for unlucky people only, just like lots of other things.

Subject: RE: BS: First day of summer .....
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 09 Jun 22 - 05:51 PM

High pollen (both grass and nettles, saith the weather ppl), plus thunder threatened. Oh Joy. Herself didn't used to have hayfever till the wretched Yellow Peril (oil see drape) sensitised her. Cue loud complaints, early and often.

Subject: RE: BS: First day of summer .....
From: keberoxu
Date: 09 Jun 22 - 05:00 PM

Pollen, there is yellow pollen on the winds every day,
and if your car is parked outside overnight,
you come out in the morning
and there is a coating of yellow pollen all over the car.
People with allergies are really suffering here at the moment.

Subject: RE: BS: First day of summer .....
From: keberoxu
Date: 06 Jun 22 - 06:52 PM

I do wish our summer could continue this way --
moderate heat, moderate to low humidity, refreshingly cool nights.
It won't of course.
In two months' time we will be fending off the mosquitoes
and the days will be muggy to the point of weariness.
But the weather is delicious at the moment.

Subject: RE: BS: First day of summer .....
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 04 Jun 22 - 02:35 PM

> squadron of swifts

Apologies: more likely swallows (as discussed by Aristotle). Noisy articles anyhow, and going by overhead so fast I couldn't distinguish.

Subject: RE: BS: First day of summer .....
From: Raggytash
Date: 02 Jun 22 - 09:04 AM

"Simpler times! What did we eat? I can't remember!"

Probably a Jam Butty and a bottle of water with a liquorice stick in it.

Subject: RE: BS: First day of summer .....
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 02 Jun 22 - 06:36 AM

I was surprised this morning by a squadron of swifts at housetop height, screaming raucously as they went. I now believe I know the original meaning of "screaming by".

Subject: RE: BS: First day of summer .....
From: keberoxu
Date: 01 Jun 22 - 07:21 PM

Today is the first day of June, another little validation of summer.
(Thunderstorms and off the charts humidity.)

Subject: RE: BS: First day of summer .....
From: keberoxu
Date: 31 May 22 - 11:03 PM

If the bears are hitting up the bird feeders,
the feeders must be supplied with suet.

Bears will go a long way to steal a bit of suet, they will.

In years past bears have raided the dumpsters where I am staying.
I saw one bear ambling through a parking lot -- and I was in my parked car in the lot at the time.

Subject: RE: BS: First day of summer .....
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 31 May 22 - 08:36 PM

Do try to be positive. You have just the one life. You can do better, seriously.

Subject: RE: BS: First day of summer .....
From: Mr Red
Date: 31 May 22 - 06:14 PM

Humble pie?

Subject: RE: BS: First day of summer .....
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 31 May 22 - 05:55 PM

Is any Brit here old enough to remember the summer of 1959? Glorious it was. It went on and on. Oop north, with long evenings, us kids spent many a late hour outdoors, chasing the rats on the banks of the Irwell or having stone-throwing fights with rival "gangs" of kids who were similarly all in single-figure years. Simpler times! What did we eat? I can't remember!

Subject: RE: BS: First day of summer .....
From: Donuel
Date: 31 May 22 - 01:45 PM

May June and July are the months you might encounter a young male black bear around here. They are exploring beyond their birth home for territory of their own. They make snacks of bird feeders.

Subject: RE: BS: First day of summer .....
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 31 May 22 - 10:17 AM

> nine months of winter and three months of bad weather

Given global warming, it's t'other way around these days. Methinks we tend to only remember sunny days in childhood summers precisely because they're so rare that they're what make an impression, not the days of drizzle.

Subject: RE: BS: First day of summer .....
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 30 May 22 - 06:32 PM

It's been said, with possibly a grain of truth, that the UK gets nine months of winter and three months of bad weather.

Subject: RE: BS: First day of summer .....
From: keberoxu
Date: 30 May 22 - 03:48 PM

In the USA it is Memorial Day,
known in another century as Decoration Day.
We're in between our Mother's Day and our Father's Day celebrations.
And school is beginning to wind down, with graduations/commencements.

Although the summer solstice is nearly a month away at this point,
the commercial/advertising/marketing cycle, with its storewide sales and such,
labels Memorial Day as
The Unofficial Beginning of the [US] Summer Season.

Here, honestly, it is too warm to feel like spring at the moment,
as it is a little humid and really sunny and hot outside
(sky thankfully a nice hazy blue with few if any clouds).

Subject: RE: BS: First day of summer .....
From: Charmion's brother Andrew
Date: 18 May 20 - 12:25 PM

Oh, thanks for reminding me about the furnace.

Subject: RE: BS: First day of summer .....
From: Charmion's brother Andrew
Date: 18 May 20 - 12:24 PM

So long as we are receiving frost warnings, it is hardly summer.

Subject: RE: BS: First day of summer .....
From: Charmion
Date: 17 May 20 - 09:14 PM

I finally turned the furnace off yesterday.

Okay, I accept that it’s Spring at last. But I have yet to see even one swallow yet, so definitely not Summer.

Subject: RE: BS: First day of summer .....
From: keberoxu
Date: 17 May 20 - 02:22 PM

I do love how Skarpi opened this thread in the first place:

it was several Aprils ago,
and the winter in Iceland was over,
so Skarpi declared it the first day of summer.

Fast forward to
the first year of the global coronavirus pandemic.
I know, you want the first year to be the last year of the pandemic,
but face facts -- this thing won't be over and done with in a year.

In the meantime,
in the Northern hemisphere,
schools are closed and the weather is turning warm,
and if it isn't summer,
sometimes it certainly seem as if it is summer.

Subject: RE: BS: First day of summer .....
From: keberoxu
Date: 23 Jun 19 - 04:32 PM

Guess I ought to let this thread die
and see about a rest-of-the-summer thread.

It's just that
this past winter was an ordeal, weather-wise,
and I still think it's miraculous
that summer came back at all.

Subject: RE: BS: First day of summer .....
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 22 Jun 19 - 05:20 PM

The first say was pretty nice, but today, the second day, brought a five minute hailstorm to some parts of RI, including mine.

Subject: RE: BS: First day of summer .....
From: JennieG
Date: 16 Jun 19 - 08:11 PM

Not very winter-y here yet, although we have had a frost and a few fogs.

Solstice this weekend, also World Make Music Day......bring your instruments to the bonfire dance, clothing optional....

I don't know how our forbears managed that nekkid dance around a bonfire in mid-winter without dying of hypothermia.

Subject: RE: BS: First day of summer .....
From: keberoxu
Date: 16 Jun 19 - 02:58 PM

refresh

Subject: RE: BS: First day of summer .....
From: keberoxu
Date: 14 Jun 19 - 01:16 PM

here summer summer summer ...

Subject: RE: BS: First day of summer .....
From: keberoxu
Date: 12 Jun 19 - 12:56 PM

How do the rest of you know
when summer has arrived?

Subject: RE: BS: First day of summer .....
From: keberoxu
Date: 11 Jun 19 - 07:25 PM

I guess the pollen all over the parked cars
is part of summer as well.

The green growing things
couldn't get any greener around here
or they would bust the green part of the spectrum.

Subject: RE: BS: First day of summer .....
From: keberoxu
Date: 08 Jun 19 - 12:38 PM

I'm calling it summer.
The solstice is weeks away,
but what is going on is more summer than spring.

Subject: RE: BS: First day of summer .....
From: keberoxu
Date: 05 Jun 19 - 12:42 PM

Is it summer when the crickets start chirping?

Because yesterday, when the sun was low,
the crickets were carrying on like mad
in the tall uncut grass
next to the railroad tracks.

Subject: RE: BS: First day of summer .....
From: keberoxu
Date: 18 Jun 17 - 12:32 PM

June is a good month to refresh.

Subject: RE: BS: First day of summer .....
From: keberoxu
Date: 30 May 16 - 05:05 PM

Many thanks Maeve.

Subject: RE: BS: First day of summer .....
From: maeve
Date: 30 May 16 - 05:00 PM

I posted about Skarpi in Jane's Rainbow, keberoxu.

Subject: RE: BS: First day of summer .....
From: keberoxu
Date: 30 May 16 - 04:00 PM

Well, it is warm enough for summer in some places right now. You all better now, skarpi??

Subject: RE: BS: First day of summer .....
From: skarpi
Date: 19 Apr 12 - 03:57 PM

nobb .....autumn , winter , spring and summer ....but when you live in a country were you have darkness like here like in Nov,Dec,Jan and Feb..
the brighter day light up your life , that´s why among other things
we celebrate first day of summer ...like when we she the sun first time
in January ...we celebrate as well .....hey we are vikings ...we just lost contact with our viking animal ...:Þ sort of speaking ...