Midsummer celebrations?

[Fizzy Izzy]

So we are coming up to the longest day of the year... Just wondered if anyone was planning on celebrating, or had any nice traditions for midsummer? I feel like I want to mark the day in some way, and it would nice to have some inspiration :)

[frozenthunderbolt]

in the southern hemisphere here, my family (of no identifyable creed or denomination) have had a 'black dinner' the last few years for midwinter/Matariki.
Black olives, stout, chocolate pudding, black rice with mushroom sauce etc.
It's quite fun.

[Shirley]

we're having a camp and fire and then a trip to the beach for a neeps fishing day. Computer will be off!!!

[the.fee.fairy]

Nik and i were going to go to Stonehenge, but i'm at work

So...not sure now...

[Silver Ether]

I shall be out in the Bongo camping and doing .. so will see whay happens ... Solstice Blessing everyone...

[eccentric_emma]

I was supposed to go to Stonehenge also but our lift has to work at 6am tomorrow morning so it's a no go :-(

[Green Aura]

If this bloody wind drops we're having a fire on the beach with soup and bread and some neighbours (they won't be cooked - hopefully).

I've been told that up here you can stay up and watch the sun set - very late, the sky was still a tad orange at 4am this morning. Then if you wait another couple of hours you can see it rise again!

I'm not sure if I'm capable of staying up all night, but I'd love to see it.

[Silver Ether]

Well nothing bloody happened, the band was poor ... and someone seemed to want me on a route march for the weekend, quite relieved he was in a rush to come home ... so I can have some space... be glad when he has buggered of to the pub...

Hope the solstice is amazing for everyone else

[Green Aura]

Sorry SE that your plans didn't work out. Our night was AMAZING!!!! I don't usually do capitals but it really was that good

We all trotted (en auto) down to the beach with wood, soup, bread, wine etc. Built a bonfire, watched the sunset - it was a bit cloudy but still stunning.

Then the good bit - everyone else buggered off by 1am and left just OH and me. We talked and laughed and had more soup and talked some more. The fire kept going and it was a very mild night.

It didn't get dark at all, not even for a minute or two, at worst it was like dusk, but that was only for about an hour around 2am.
OH could tell the time without any lighting and the torch we'd taken (just in case) never came out of his pocket.

Anyway around 3.30 it was broad daylight and we extinguished the remnants of the fire and started to pack all the stuff in the car. At this point we realised that our knowledgeable neighbours must all have been seriously enebriated, by their chosen method, when they experienced sunrise, because all they told us about where it would rise etc was a load of b*****ks.

The car park is about 20ft higher than the beach. Not a lot but enough to realise we'd have waited forever to see sunrise where they told us it would come up. It was starting to rise behind the sand dunes - behind us! The best of it was, I'd asked, earlier in the proceedings, that east was behind us - doesn't the sun rise in the east? Everyone smiled indulgently and pointed out that we're so far north that it doesn't work that way.

Anyway, we decided we were in the wrong place at this point and hopped into the car and drove up to Durness, where there's a much wider view, just in time to witness the most beautiful cerise sunrise. Sorry to any sailors out there but it was truly wonderful.

We'll probably never do it again - certainly not while OH keeps office hours. But it has to be logged as one of a handful of truly amazing, memorable occasions in my life. The number of those seem to be increasing since I moved up here

Sorry, no photos - forgot the camera, some of our friends took pics of the sunset - I'll see if I can get them to email me a couple.

[Silver Ether]

Well at least I had something nice to read... I am really glad you had such a good time

[Green Aura]

I'm the blob and OH is the one amplifying the sunlight with his pate

This was taken about midnight and it really didn't get much darker than this all night.

[eccentric_emma]

That is gorgeous.

[SarahJane]

Wow, I wish I had been there to witness that Green Aura, it sounds ab fab!

[the.fee.fairy]

I went to Stonehenge!

I went to my friend's after work for a bit of a cry, and her housemate was going, so we looked at each other and decided to go on a road trip!

We left here at 10 and got to the stones themselves about 04:15, just in time for the sunrise ritual.
I can't believe a 2 hours journey took 6 hours!!

It was good though, and i shook Arthur Pendragon's hand - there's something about the bloke...

[SarahJane]

Glad that you decided to go out and do something, hope that it made you feel a little better Fee.