Summer Solstice Sky

Photographed from the summit of Leicestershire's second highest peak, Beacon Hill, 813 feet above sea level

I missed the sunset but very much enjoyed the afterglow, the remaining rays reaching longer into the twilight night than on any other day of the year. It really is a special time of year.

One of the reasons for arriving after the sunset was a wrong turn on my walk up to the summit. A much longer meandering path, the route circumventing the summit, as if in orbit of the peak only served to remind me of the celestial pivot-point tonight represents. 

The towers of Copt Oak, their broadcasts reaching far and wide, took my thoughts further and further north and I imagined how much later this wonderful gloaming might start and how much brighter the nighttime blue would be tonight in Scotland, Iceland or Norway. 

Their distance took me the other way too; all the way to New Zealand where its the shortest day, I imagine the June winter solstice meets with expectation of better days ahead.

Upon getting home I heard this beautiful program on BBC Radio 4, a longtime favourite of mine, Something Understood. Tonights broadcast a collection of words, thoughts, poetry and song on the midsummer solstice.  You can listen to the program here