Some Folks Like It :-)

Here Comes the Sun: Revelers Celebrate Summer Solstice at Ancient Monument of Stonehenge

Of course they're wearing coats. It wasn't already 70°F at sunrise; no wonder they don't mind.

It's 45°F in Sydney right now...let's go!

English Heritage's Stonehenge Site.

Science World explains the Solstice.

Various summer solstice religious celebrations.

Christmas in July June

I went back to Book Nook this morning to get the Eric Sloane book and just happened to turned around where they kept the VHS Christmas material. I was quite happy to find a copy of The Night Before Christmas, which is a late 1960s cartoon that features the voice of Olan Soule (veteran radio performer and also the voice of the father in Disney's The Small One) as Clement C. Moore in this fictionalized account of how the good doctor wrote "A Visit from St. Nicholas." The poem is sung by the Norman Luboff Choir, but it's the arrangement done by Ken Darby for Fibber McGee and Molly on radio in the 1940s.

I also found a Readers Digest produced tape called Christmas Around the World with Perry Como, a 112 minute compilation of six of his classic Christmas specials: Colonial Williamsburg, France, Quebec, Mexico, Austria, and the Holy Land.

So I spent a lovely afternoon watching both tapes and then listening to Christmas music. Schuyler seemed to like it and has been cheeping, chirping, and even giving little scolds all afternoon and evening.

What to My Wondering Eyes Did Appear...

In Hobby Lobby the other day and there are fall wreaths scattered about, and fall leaves under some of the displays. At the opposite end of the store they had already stocked an aisle with Christmas "picks" and half an aisle with Christmas ribbon. very heartening, considering they're predicting 90°F plus coming up.

It has been a rather Christmas-y day today, as we had cloudy skies and a breeze. We stopped at Book Nook, a local used bookstore, and I found these:

• Mary Englebreit's Believe
• The Merry Christmas Book (Ideals compilation book
• Christmas Treasury from Guideposts
also America Celebrates, also from Ideals, with selections from each holiday, Christmas at the end, and of course also New Year's and Thanksgiving