Summer Solstice 2010

Fourteen hours, 56 minutes and 21 seconds.

That's how long the day was yesterday. The sun rose in Baltimore at 5:40 AM and set at 8:36 PM.

Compare that to the number of daylight hours on the shortest day to come in 2010: 9h 24m 00s on December 21.

That is the gift of the summer solstice. Seemingly endless sunlight, giving us almost two days of sunlight to every one in the midst of winter. No wonder our moods are generally better and we feel more buoyant and productive. We seem to have not just more light but more time.

But I write not just to celebrate summer days. I want also to cheer on summer nights.

Sunday night, we enjoyed the quintessence of summer: an outdoor concert in a neighborhood backyard performed by talented local musicians and friends.

Ken Kolodner, a magician on the hammered dulcimer who is perhaps best known around here for his annual Winter Solstice concert, welcomed some 70 folks to his home. We all brought our lawn chairs, a bit of wine, a touch of bug spray, slices of watermelon and a hunger for the music.

Six musicians serenaded us with ballads and reels on fiddles, mandolins, keyboard and guitar, not to mention the aforementioned hammered dulcimer. The selections were classics from the old country and some new compositions from just a year or so ago. One of the treats was that Ken also played with his talented son (a composer as well as performer). A sweet celebration of Father's Day.

Gathering on the second longest day of the year, at the moments around sunset, we were accompanied by the soft dance of night: the lingering, colorful fingers of sunlight slowly stroking the cheeks of the sky as they slipped down the side of heaven; the bats above - those still healthy and playful, swooping in time with each other, filling their bellies and ridding the neighborhood of pesky bugs; the fireflies, a whole army of them, which was great because their ranks were much depleted last year but this year they seem to have come back in force.

And this glorious moon as it showed itself between the thick boughs of this local urban forest.

It was the quintessence of a joyous summer's night. A pleasure to be at and a pleasure to remember.

For both you and me, may this summer's memories be full of such pleasures!

(This December is Helicon's 25th annual winter solstice concert. To celebrate with them, and find out more information, check out Ken's website at http://www.kenkolodner.com.)

(To find out more about time around the world, including local sunset and sunrise information, visit www.timeanddate.com.)

(I took this photograph in Ken's backyard during the concert.)