Alerted by multiple cell phone audible alerts a fast-moving July storm moved thru quickly this evening at the start of our Lions Club meeting.
And after all the ruckus was over on my way home I was greeted with this.
When you live in Flyover Country the panoramic views are far better than in an urban setting. Two rainbows in two weeks.
Ma Nature smiled on the landscape with her all-clear sign….
The inspiration for the catchy chorus for this song came when the band members saw two girls walking down the street in Bergenfield, New Jersey. Who doesn't like very short cutoff jeans on a shapely young lady on a sunny summer day? Seriously.
This 1957 rock and roll hit by The Royal Teens, a band from New Jersey, was written and performed by Tom Austin, Bill Crandell, Bill Dalton, and Bob Gaudio. It became a major success in 1958, reaching #3 on the U.S. pop chart and #2 on the R&B chart. It's got an old school classic boogie woogie beat and Jersey accented vocals too.
Short Shorts....
The full moon we experienced last Thursday is sometimes called
the Thunder Moon. This is as a
consequence of weather patterns in our hemisphere being the stormiest in the
month of July. None of this is a result
of climate change – it’s just the way it’s always been.
So far we haven’t experienced any
particularly show-stopping storms but I did stumble across one from 2016 that is worthy of sharing.
Ordinarily I would not recommend standing on a wet porch in your bare feet during a lightning storm. But the view of that stormy sunset was spectacular.
There is an old saying about making hay while the sun shines - a recognition that farm chores last as long as there is daylight. The last four weeks have been witness to my neighbors fetching their first cutting of hay; along with spreading manure, tilling, discing and planting. It has been a busy place here in flyover country.
We know that the summer solstice tomorrow marks the longest day of the year yet the latest sunset of 2025 doesn't occur on that date. Let me explain.
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| Solstice Stone - Stonehenge, UK |
The word solstice literally translates to: sun standing still. Following this event the sun begins to march in the opposite direction and heads south with our daylight hours getting shorter. Daylight will continue to dwindle until December 21 - The dark days of the winter solstice - and the first astronomical day of winter after which the process reverses and repeats itself.
All of this aside, there is a curious paradox in play as a few evenings immediately following the solstice seemingly and inexplicably get brighter.
If you were to check your Farmers' Almanac sunset tables on pages 150 and 151 you would note that at latitude 40 degrees north the sunset occurs at 8:33 every day from June 21st thru July 3rd. On June 27th it will set a few seconds later compared to the 26th or 28th.
What gives?
We all know that following the solstice the days grow shorter so logically the sun should be setting earlier, no?
Here in the northern hemisphere, where you live halfway between the equator and the north pole, on the 27th of June the sun will set just a few seconds later. While this would seem to defy both logic and the science about days getting shorter; as a consequence of our elliptical orbit around the sun and the phenomenon astronomers call analemma the earth is several million miles farther from the sun and moving at the slowest speed around it. Which would explain the hiccup in the sun setting.
Most of you may not be making hay today; nevertheless, on Friday of next week enjoy a couple of extra seconds of sunlight as you take-in another sunset.
Cheers!
One of many weekend festivals and events on the peninsula is the Door County Maritime Museum Classic and Wooden Boat Festival. We've been attending over many years as our schedule allows. Most of the time hosting guests over the weekend.
A subset of the festival is the Sikaflex® Challenge Build-a-Boat Cup series. Sponsored by Sika at similar festivals every year these exciting competitions challenge contestants to design, build, and race small boats using plywood and lumber, zip ties, and fast-curing Sikaflex®-291 adhesive & sealant to keep their watercraft afloat.
This year was especially exciting as it was the first time we've attended where not a single boat disintegrated and sank in the bay. One boat capsized at launch, the crowd howled for a Mulligan. A relaunch was attempted to no avail - boat capsized.
Disqualified!
We all agreed that 2024 not only brought the best selection of creatively-designed wooden boats; but some of the sturdiest and fastest marine engineering in memory.
Here are some selected photos and videos.....
This last weekend brought the return of the Door County Maritime Museum Classic and Wooden Boat Show. Thirty-Three Years Running!
We had out-of town guests and made a weekend of it. While the weather was hot and sunny there was a cooling lake breeze and refreshing food and adult beverages to be found both at the show and at Kitty O'Reilly's and Water Front Mary's . There was even some single malt whiskey to sip in the evenings before bedtime.
Here are some pics of the classics.
Be sure to return this afternoon for pics of the Sikaflex Challenge Cup Boat Race....
We returned from almost three weeks of family vacation in the UK last week.
While there, a visit to Stonehenge was in order.
No Druids were involved as this is both a Neolithic religious and astronomical site.
Happy Solstice, people!
Tomorrow is the Summer Solstice here in the northern
hemisphere - 3:51 PM to be precise. Which means that on Thursday we receive more sunlight than any other day
of the year. Naturally, you would
conclude that this date would have the earliest sunrise and latest sunset, no?
Don't jump to conclusions.
Even though the solstice has the greatest amount of daylight - the
earliest sunrise occurs before the solstice and the latest sunset falls
afterward. The occurrence of those
events is dependent upon how far you are from the equator – a function of the
tilt of the Earth on its axis.
Here is
an interesting factoid – I went to the US Naval Observatory Astronomical Applications Department and looked-up the Sunrise and Sunset times for The Platz before, during and after the solstice.
If you open your copy of the 2023 Farmer's Almanac you will note that in the Northern Hemisphere the earliest sunrise for this year is tomorrow - June 14.
You're probably thinking: Shouldn't this coincide with the summer solstice next week? Nope, the dates for the earliest sunrise (June 14) and the latest sunset (June 27) do not coincide with the Solstice (June 21).
The principle cause of this is the slightly elliptical orbit of the earth around the sun and the tilt of the earth's axis. The earth moves a bit faster in its orbit during the month of January when we're closest to the sun. In July we are further from the sun and moving a bit slower. If you chart the path of the sun across the sky on a daily basis it will appear to travel in a figure-eight pattern that astronomers call an analemma. This is the Word of the Day.
Because of this, the notion that when the sun is directly overhead at noon, thereby slitting the day into to precisely equal parts, is not true.
The midday sun comes later by the clock on the day of the solstice than it does a week earlier. As a consequence of this the sunrise and sunset times differ on a clock. It is the sun's looping path that explains this difference.
I'm sure by now your head hurts a bit by this explanation so don't sweat the details. Take my word for it.
When you get-up tomorrow morning grab a big cuppa joe and watch the early sunrise.
Baked a French boule yesterday at the request of The Missus. We were thinking alike and looking ahead 24 hours.
This evening there was this....
The arrival of the first BLT of of 2022 signals the official arrival of summer.
Boom!
If you live in the Midwest you an appreciate this PSA for the season of orange barrels...
The names associated with our full moons are frequently
derived from the names given by the indigenous peoples that inhabited North
America. The tribes used a calendar to
track the seasons by means of the names given to the return of a full
moon.
In the northern hemisphere July
is the stormiest month of the year and for that reason the full moon that greets
us today is called the Thunder Moon. Look for it to rise after sunset in the southeast horizon.
Bonus
This is a super moon. This is a phenomenon in which the moon is closest to the earth in its elliptical orbit. The July full moon will appear 15% larger and 30% brighter than normal. This will be the brightest super moon of 2022. This also brings us to the word of the day. Astronomers call this Lunar Perigee. Commit this to memory. One of these days there will be a test.
This moon is also called the Buck Moon in recognition of the
rapidly-growing, velvet-covered, antlers of the whitetail deer.
With the arrival of European settlers two
additional monikers come to mind: the
Meade Moon which coincides the harvest of honey used to ferment this drink and
the Hay Moon as the first cuttings of cattle fodder occur.
Fingers-crossed for clear night skies and no skeeters.....
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| Photo NASA |
One of the highlights of the Door County Classic and Wooden Boat Festival is the Sikaflex Challenge.
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| Lilly Pad |
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| Hawaiian War Canoe |
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| Mayday |
There are no plans - construction is ad-hoc. Costumes and themes are encouraged.
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| Mayday |
Accompanied with the requisite fanfare and hilarity - the sea trials of the Sikaflex craft are held on Sunday afternoon.
Some of the vessels break-apart immediately upon launching.
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| Lilly Pad |
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| Hawaiian War Canoe |
A few sink spectacularly.
Remarkably, most of these craft are truly seaworthy - Some more than others. One or more are competent and maneuverable vessels.
The Sikaflex Challenge is a hoot!
This time of year summer storms can brew-up quickly and without a great deal of advance notice.
And unlike a gentle summer shower They can arrive with high winds, horizontal straight-line winds, punishing volumes of rain and sometimes hail.
It is for this reason that gardening this season has been such a challenge of late.
Growing your own vegetables has become a contact sport.....
Looking dandy in their rusty roan summer coats and velvet headgear.
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