Nine twenty-five. That’s the time the sun was due to set today, here in the East of England. Sunrise was 4.35am (apparently – I was definitely not awake), giving us almost 17 hours of sunshine. It’s Midsummer’s Day, the longest day of the year.
The last frosts are only a few weeks behind us, and the growing season is really just getting going. Yet here we are – half way through the year. From tomorrow, the days will start to get a little shorter again. Crazy, huh?
It definitely felt like summer today. Out in the lanes, the sun shone on the wheat in the fields nearby.
One of the farms near by…
The lanes are full of cow parsley and wild roses. If you’ve ever wanted to tell your dog rose from your field rose (I usually muddle them up), have a look here for a really clear explanation – thanks to A Tramp in the Woods.
Dog rose
The swifts are busy nesting in the roof, and there are swallows in the barn. The redcurrants are ripening (which means we need to hack down the nettle bed that has grown up around them if we want to harvest any…) The apples are on their way.
Discovery apples ripening
I managed not to look at the weeds in the veg plot, and just ran in to photograph some bumblebees making good use of the giant foxglove that has seeded itself there.
Bee in foxglove
Bee feast
Today the sun shone. The pigs spent a lovely half hour lying in their wallow, while the kids chased each other around with the garden hose. There are heaps of seeds I should have planted and weeds I should have pulled – but that’s OK, it was Midsummer’s Day. Hope the sun shone for you too.
It’s summer fete season
alder & ash 
Beautiful!
Thank you! The photos don’t show the grotty bits – of which we have plenty! But today was just one of those days when (almost) everything looked lovely…
Reblogged this on Linda's wildlife garden and commented:
Lovely post and thank you for sharing have a blessed day
Thank you Linda! Your bird cams are amazing, by the way… 🙂
http://www.worldwildwebcams.com/WWLINPEN.html
thank you find a new nest today a woodpigeon if you want to keep an eye on it have a blessed day
Hey thanks for the plug. Never mind the officials, here the sky is still light at ten thirty and the birds start singing around three am. Oh I wish that it could always be summer…. except when it was autumn or spring. 🙂 Your farm looks beautiful.
Hey there – 3am sounds about right, we have sparrows nesting in the roof and they make a racket, starting about then! Some of the photos (like the lovely fields of wheat) are just round and about in the lanes – no rolling acres for us, alas! We’re just a little smallholding…
Unfortunately it got dark a little early here as it was overcast later on but I always feel the long light evenings stretch well into the summer 🙂
Like to say though it is strange that midsummer is actually barely into summer 😉
I agree – even tho technically we’ve had the longest day, it really is the start of summer, isn’t it.
Thats a lovely celebration post, we had glorious weather for midsummer, but I hate the thought that days get shorter from here, its only just got going!
Thank you, glad you had lovely weather too. I agree, summer has only just got going – I don’t mind the fact we’ve had the longest day, as it feels like most of summer is still ahead of us, and it will be a long while before I’ll really notice the evenings getting earlier again. 🙂
You didn’t need to mention the shortening days. Still, we do have another month of late nights to enjoy before they really start drawing in.
Sorry! 🙂 I was actually feeling rather inspired by what the longest day means, as I’d been explaining to the kids, and they were pretty impressed by the fact that we live on a spinning lump of rock, and that the tilt of that rock determines the length of their days!! It made me see if through their eyes, if you see what I mean. And it still feels like we have almost all of summer ahead of us….I hope!
Happy summer and I like all of your photos 🙂