FOURTH OF JULY

When I was a child, the Fourth Of July used to be a very fun holiday. Over the years, it got more low key... as it was this year. I made pizza. I decided to not bother with fireworks -- any sparklers I have are stored away somewhere -- and as I had no guests over, there was no real reason to pull out the sparklers and light any of them.

The surrounding neighborhoods had very few fireworks going on. The City's ban on them has quashed such activity for the most part. As I have written before, even "safe-and-sane" fireworks are banned, which seems a bit extreme.

The moon rising over the River on the night of the 4th. The second, tiny light below it is a jet airplane.

On the hills on each side of the area where I live, however, there still were numerous rockets and mortars being lit, and the 'boom' noises echoed down through the valley.

I took a night-time bike ride, and got a halfway decent picture of the moon rising over the Cedar River. I also saw a lone electric shopping cart -- apparently stolen from a store somewhere and ridden until the battery gave out.

The renegade shopping cart, a day or so after it was dropped off alongside the Cedar River Trail.

I saw some guy riding an electric shopping cart down a nearby sidewalk the previous evening. His ride seemed awful slow -- I think one can walk twice as fast as those carts move: now I know how far he got before the machine would drive no further. :-)

A pic taken of the Cedar River closer to Solstice... But it's how everything looks here when it's full-on summer.

Today (July 5th) the weather was sunny and 85 degrees F. Full-on summer.

Hopefully, the weather will hold. I still have a lot of clearing to do around an apple tree that has been taken over by that common threat, the Himalayan Blackberry. :-) There are so many Himalayan Blackberries in Washington they should be the State plant. People treat them as a weed, which they sort of are: except during August and September they're loaded with very edible berries.

I've sometimes wondered why people want to kill off a plant that grows without any cultivation needed, is the world's cheapest security fence, and provides baskets of free food. Ah well.

Usually the local pond ducks never stay still long enough to get a decent picture. This time they apparently changed their minds.

A couple shots of the moon rising a couple nights after the 4th of July. The Nikon L32 can take decent moon and night shots.

In honor of the veterans, of whom I often think about on the Fourth, I found a link of music that I usually think of when the Fourth hits. It's not American band music, but -- after all -- I played in a bagpipe band for 4 years a long time ago, and the bagpipes historically were an instrument of war. All The Blue Bonnets Are Over The Border shall have to suffice. Apparently a piper played it while the Brits were storming the beaches of Normandy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YsMCqgZPKE

A slightly cleaner sounding recording of it is here: it's the third (last) tune in this short YouTube audio clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwKgGTANQQg

I've been relearning All The Blue Bonnets, and still have a ways to go before I get it down right. Perhaps if and when I do I'll record it and post a link here.

As I post this, it's about a week after the Fourth, and the last fortnight has been a bit tiring for some reason. There was more work than usual, which is good; but less sleep than usual for some reason, which isn't so good.

We're having lots of sunny, pleasant weather here in the great green Northwest, and plenty of yard work and bicycling awaits.

Hope all are having a great July so far.

CC -- July 9th, 2017

St. John's Eve

An empty Rainier Beer carton being burned on St. John's Eve.

Summer has finally arrived here in Seattle, with bright sun and clear nights. This past week the temperatures were in the 90's F. After a long spell of grey skies and some rain, we finally are seeing hot weather.

Although St. John's Eve was the 21st (the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere), it sort of came and went without fanfare.

Friends having beer, cola, and a very hot fire in a specially built burn-barrel. As one can tell -- the fire could get very hot!

However, last night (as I write this on the 24th) a friend and neighbor had a large bonfire, and the 23rd is close enough to the 21st for it to be called a St. John's celebration -- even though the fire would have been burning through the evening anyway, as it was started to rid the yard of some tree branches. :-)

St. John's Eve isn't generally celebrated here in the U.S., as far as I know. In fact, the only people who know about the holiday are those who study ancient European culture, or History. I found out about the ancient bonfire celebrations by reading about ancient Celtic and ancient British traditions, both in the famous book "The Golden Bough" by Sir James George Fraser, and other similar books.

Tony stokes the bonfire with some wood.

Some people here have heard of the solstice holiday, and bonfires used to be more common in the U.S. during summer until laws were enacted against them in the 1970's - 1990's, either for pollution reasons, or fire reasons. In rural areas before then bonfires were used to burn yard clippings, and families would also use the fires as a social occasion, for roasting apples, potatoes, etc. But those traditions are long gone now.

The barrel could get rather hot. The holes at the bottom made it act like a blast chimney. :-)

I've posted a few photos of our own version of the St. John's celebration here: much Rainier Beer was imbibed, and Coca Cola as well.

My thermometers showing the afternoon temperature being around 95 degrees F. I was doing some hedge trimming out front and had Coke and 98.9 FM playing on my Sony boombox.

In the sun it was closer to 100 degrees F. Great summer weather!

A street just before sunset in late June.

The Cedar River Trail, around Solstice.

I rode my bike the late afternoon before my friend had his bonfire. It was close to Solstice, and the sun set where it usually does this time of year, the distant marker trees still in place. It was still very warm out, around 75-78 degrees F (18C? or thereabouts).

Sunset a couple days after Summer Solstice. Taken with my Nikon L32 snapshot camera.

A quiet spot along the Cedar River Trail at sunset.

It was a really nice evening for a quiet ride on the Trail. At night the frogs are still croaking -- they seem to be doing it a bit later this year than usual. The trees here also leaved out a week later than normal, and cottonwood season was a bit short and late. Whether this is a micro-climate change, or just poor observations on my part I'm not certain.

As for life in general? It's going. Writing and work, and playing the bagpipes a few times a week. When I fire up my bagpipes I put my cat in the bedroom so she doesn't have to hear the racket. I've been re-learning tunes I used to know way back when. The fingers remember them -- mostly. With plenty of mistakes.

My Memorial Day flags.... I'll be putting them out this Fourth of July also.

As I finally post this, it is early morning, the Fourth of July, America's Independence Day. I have no huge things planned. I may light off an (illegal) sparkler in my back yard, and am planning on having pizza. I had dinner with a friend a couple nights ago and saw the movie Munich, which I hadn't watched in a while (I have the DVD). That's the extent of my Independence celebrations for this year. :-)

Hoping all in the Northern Hemisphere are having a good summer, and those of you south of the Equator -- hope your Winter is a good one.

CC -- July 4th, 2017.