Shortest day

So the longest night:-)

Just got in from work.

At 3.36! That is late, or maybe it's early...

Oh blimey. I'd better get cracking then!

-- “Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.”

H.L. Mencken, A Mencken Chrestomathy

Earliest sunset was a few days ago: we already have 3 whole minutes more before sunset. Latest sunrise is around the 30th.

Perhaps it was a comely female client! :)

I think it shifts around a centre point so shortest day isn't necessarily latest sunrise/earliest sunset.

Attended the winter solstice at that Stonehenge they have these days one year (once was enough). Predictably saw f*ck all. But had a nice venison curry the night before. To be fair there was a very friendly atmosphere and no shortage of happy volunteers to carry SWMBO wheelchair over the mud.

Despite the headline, guess what you *don't* see :)

I attended years ago in the late 1980s I think, Fearsomely cold. Went with a bunch of wiccans and magicians. We were the only ones there. We took photos of the sunrise and then went for a full English at a transport cafe and a pub lunch at Avebury

Fun, but I wouldn't do it again.

Apparently there were "a few thousand" inside the circle itself ? We decided to park up about 25 metres from the edge of the circle. Being Salisbury *Plain* the wind was also fearsome then (2014).

We had a disappointing Olympic breakfast (possibly our last) on the way back, trying to beat the heavy freeze forecast which did actually materialise.

As you said, a once in a lifetime experience. Thankfully.

Personally I'd believe our forebears were much less interested in the summer solstice than the winter one. Be curious if the alignments show a priority ? Bearing in mind how much has been dicked around with in written history, let alone before.

No. I am just fortunate enough to sometimes get paid to do nothing at silly hours of the day.

Amnd hopefully paid well!

A lot of these things have grown a little too popular for their own good attendance having increased from those whose beliefs traditionally took them there to many more for whom it is a tick off the bucket list. It’s not just large events like Stonehenge ,near where i grew up there is a village where while most of the country was letting off fireworks and burning guys on bonfires the bellringers would make a racket and then roll a rock over with crowbars .If they didn’t the Devil who allegedly dropped it would return and do mischief. It was a relative quite affair , now the place gets invaded by people from afar muscling in making a racket with bodhrans and horns , and bloody morris dancers It’s completely changed an old tradition.

GH

That's Shebbear. I lived there 28 years - rang bells -turned stone. All here

As a former IT contractor, I always used to enjoy every February 29th, to remind the permi's that they had to work an extra day for nothing, while I got paid :-)

Jim the Geordie snipped-for-privacy@jimXscott.co.uk> wrote: ,near where i grew up there is a village where while most of

Well theres a coincidence then I wonder if our time periods overlapped , I left as a teenager in the early

GH