Venecia (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} thesecondcircle) wrote,@ 2009-06-22 09:06:00 |
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Happy Solstice
Yes, indeed it was.
For those of us in the US, the astrological solstice was near midnight. So, depending on your timezone, it might have been either Saturday or Sunday. From a Pagan point of view (Summer Solstice = Longest Day), the whole weekend was the solstice here in Portland because the difference in day length was less than a second. BTW, see this site for nifty astronomical data including sunrise and sunset times to the second: http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/s
We had planned to spend Saturday at the beach. In fact, we even talked about getting a room and spending the weekend. However the weather was just NOT cooperating. It was forecast to be borderline all week anyway, but on Saturday morning we checked the weather on the coast to discover mid-50s, rain, and cloudy. Not good. So after some cranky discussion about what we'd like to do instead, we decided to go to Oaks Park for the afternoon.
This is a great amusement park, 104 years old, just across the river in Sellwood. The weather was cool and occasionally rainy but it was a wonderful time. First we enjoyed lunch at the Sellwood Public House (which is a great family-friendly pub with good food). At the park, we rode tons of rides (Ham was tall enough to go on almost everything), listened to a cool jazz/swing trio, and had giant ice creams while we watched the river and rode the little train. It rained on us a tiny bit, but it wasn't bad enough to shut down the rides. At the end of the afternoon, we rode the Ferris wheel and watched the storm clouds rolling in.
Finally, Ham and I rode the Herschell-Spillman carousel "a 1912 American carved piece of folk art." (Note, I take no responsibility for the phrasing of that quote.) I rode a goat. The animals are beautiful, hand carved and fantastically painted with glass eyes. This is the oldest carousel I've ever ridden* (the previous winner being the one at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs, from the 1930s).
* That I know of. I did ride one in Passau when I was a kid, the kind with the brass ring, but I don't know how old it was.
Oaks Park turned out to be a wonderful idea for the solstice. Carnivals, fairs, and old amusement parks (I'm not talking Disneyland here) have a kind of "summer's faire" Pagan vibe about them. They're a bit tawdry, a bit sticky, and a perfect microcosm of the human social animal. The weather hit as we were driving and it was beautiful. We were chilled and tired when we got home, so tomato soup and sandwiches were a perfect light supper.
Sunday Ham and I ran out early to fetch pastries and a giant orange daisy for father's day. In the car, Ham said "I love mother's day and father's day because I get a doughnut for breakfast!" -- which pretty much sums it up. Pastries and coffee in bed rock, let me tell you! We spent the rest of the day hanging out. We took turns playing Pente, Bryn got some solid studio time in (he recently acquired some nifty new equipment thanks to the wonder of Craigslist and a down economy), and Ham and I rode our bikes down to the library. The Ham is just getting old enough to ride on the street and I've been teaching her all the skills she needs in order to be safe. She did pretty well. She's still prone to stopping suddenly (which is challenging for me as I'm right behind her) and riding more like a pedestrian than a car. In the afternoon we put on Lord of the Rings.
Later I ran back out to the grocery store (bad planning, but that's what I get for going out pre-coffee) to pick up some stuff for dinner as well as some fruit for the coming week. The Hub made a delicious fish dinner with tilapia, savory rice, and local snow peas. It seems unfair that he should cook on father's day, but dinner was sooooo good, with a lemon-butter cream sauce for the fish and yellow raspberry crepes with whipped cream for dessert. I cleaned up the kitchen and got a loaf of sponge bread ready to go in the bread machine (bread machine bread tends to suck, IMHO, unless you start with an overnight sponge). I also managed to harvest a bunch of mint to dry for tea.
The energy around this solstice has been a bit odd -- pensive might be a good word for it. When the weather broke on Saturday afternoon it felt a bit better, but it's been interesting. I've had a lot of powerful dreams and get the feeling that, for the HPI at least, this is going to be a busy season with a lot of energy and change. I really felt the switch over the course of the weekend. To me the solstices feel like that moment on a swing when you just reach the top of the arc and are poised before you start to fall again. Which, astronomically speaking, is pretty accurate. So even though there is a lot more summer ahead, and a lot warmer weather, we've started the slow inexorable fall into... well, fall.
So happy solstice, and happy mid-summer -- and for my friends across the globe happy mid-winter.
Yes, indeed it was.
For those of us in the US, the astrological solstice was near midnight. So, depending on your timezone, it might have been either Saturday or Sunday. From a Pagan point of view (Summer Solstice = Longest Day), the whole weekend was the solstice here in Portland because the difference in day length was less than a second. BTW, see this site for nifty astronomical data including sunrise and sunset times to the second: http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/s
We had planned to spend Saturday at the beach. In fact, we even talked about getting a room and spending the weekend. However the weather was just NOT cooperating. It was forecast to be borderline all week anyway, but on Saturday morning we checked the weather on the coast to discover mid-50s, rain, and cloudy. Not good. So after some cranky discussion about what we'd like to do instead, we decided to go to Oaks Park for the afternoon.
This is a great amusement park, 104 years old, just across the river in Sellwood. The weather was cool and occasionally rainy but it was a wonderful time. First we enjoyed lunch at the Sellwood Public House (which is a great family-friendly pub with good food). At the park, we rode tons of rides (Ham was tall enough to go on almost everything), listened to a cool jazz/swing trio, and had giant ice creams while we watched the river and rode the little train. It rained on us a tiny bit, but it wasn't bad enough to shut down the rides. At the end of the afternoon, we rode the Ferris wheel and watched the storm clouds rolling in.
Finally, Ham and I rode the Herschell-Spillman carousel "a 1912 American carved piece of folk art." (Note, I take no responsibility for the phrasing of that quote.) I rode a goat. The animals are beautiful, hand carved and fantastically painted with glass eyes. This is the oldest carousel I've ever ridden* (the previous winner being the one at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs, from the 1930s).
* That I know of. I did ride one in Passau when I was a kid, the kind with the brass ring, but I don't know how old it was.
Oaks Park turned out to be a wonderful idea for the solstice. Carnivals, fairs, and old amusement parks (I'm not talking Disneyland here) have a kind of "summer's faire" Pagan vibe about them. They're a bit tawdry, a bit sticky, and a perfect microcosm of the human social animal. The weather hit as we were driving and it was beautiful. We were chilled and tired when we got home, so tomato soup and sandwiches were a perfect light supper.
Sunday Ham and I ran out early to fetch pastries and a giant orange daisy for father's day. In the car, Ham said "I love mother's day and father's day because I get a doughnut for breakfast!" -- which pretty much sums it up. Pastries and coffee in bed rock, let me tell you! We spent the rest of the day hanging out. We took turns playing Pente, Bryn got some solid studio time in (he recently acquired some nifty new equipment thanks to the wonder of Craigslist and a down economy), and Ham and I rode our bikes down to the library. The Ham is just getting old enough to ride on the street and I've been teaching her all the skills she needs in order to be safe. She did pretty well. She's still prone to stopping suddenly (which is challenging for me as I'm right behind her) and riding more like a pedestrian than a car. In the afternoon we put on Lord of the Rings.
Later I ran back out to the grocery store (bad planning, but that's what I get for going out pre-coffee) to pick up some stuff for dinner as well as some fruit for the coming week. The Hub made a delicious fish dinner with tilapia, savory rice, and local snow peas. It seems unfair that he should cook on father's day, but dinner was sooooo good, with a lemon-butter cream sauce for the fish and yellow raspberry crepes with whipped cream for dessert. I cleaned up the kitchen and got a loaf of sponge bread ready to go in the bread machine (bread machine bread tends to suck, IMHO, unless you start with an overnight sponge). I also managed to harvest a bunch of mint to dry for tea.
The energy around this solstice has been a bit odd -- pensive might be a good word for it. When the weather broke on Saturday afternoon it felt a bit better, but it's been interesting. I've had a lot of powerful dreams and get the feeling that, for the HPI at least, this is going to be a busy season with a lot of energy and change. I really felt the switch over the course of the weekend. To me the solstices feel like that moment on a swing when you just reach the top of the arc and are poised before you start to fall again. Which, astronomically speaking, is pretty accurate. So even though there is a lot more summer ahead, and a lot warmer weather, we've started the slow inexorable fall into... well, fall.
So happy solstice, and happy mid-summer -- and for my friends across the globe happy mid-winter.
