Picture of the Day for June 21, 2014

It is the summer solstice in the northern hemisphere, which is when the Sun reaches the farthest point north of the equator and giving us the most hours of sunlight for the whole year. The word solstice is from the Latin solstitium from sol (sun) and stitium (to stop), because it appears the sun stops at the solstice.

And today the sun is actually out for a change instead of raining so I can see the longest day of sunlight, which for my area is fifteen hours and thirty-six minutes. But now that we reached the longest day, each day will be shorter and minutes will disappear like the dandelion seeds and before you know it, the ground won’t be covered with white dandelions but with white snow instead.

Disappearing Daylight

Disappearing Daylight

Picture of the Day for June 19, 2014

Today is Tippy’s birthday, a cat I raised on a bottle and was the star of my children’s book. She turns seven today but she is not a happy birthday girl since after my other house cat died, I figure she could use some company of other cats and put her in the small house with a fenced in run. Well she is not happy with the new accommodations at all and is now a snarly, hissing cat.

Click the play button to hear the ‘happy’ birthday girl.

Unhappy Birthday Girl

Unhappy Birthday Girl

Picture of the Day for June 16, 2014

After a stormy weekend, I always wonder how the oriole nest manages to stay attached to the branches with extreme swaying and wonder how the poor eggs aren’t scrambled. But I suppose since the female spends a lot of time incubating the eggs and builds the nest, she doesn’t take shortcuts nor scrimp on the number of the fibers as it takes a week to build or longer if the weather is bad.

Female Baltimore Oriole in Her Nest

Female Baltimore Oriole in Her Nest