[HOTTIEBOY]

If June 21 is the day when we receive the most sunshine, why is it regarded as the beginning of summer and not its peak? And similarly, why is December 21, the day of least sunshine, the beginning of winter and not mid-winter day?
Blame the oceans, which heat up and cool down only slowly. By June 21 they are still cool from the winter time, and that delays the peak heat by about a month and a half. Similarly, in December the water still holds warmth from the summer, and the coldest days are still (on the average--not always! ) a month and a half ahead.
And what about our distance from the Sun? It, too, varies, because the Earth's orbit around the Sun isn't an exact circle. We are closest to the Sun--would you believe it? --in the cold wintertime, around January 3-5.

[HOTTIEBOY]

[RightWhale]

Today the days begin to become shorter. This is probably the peak of the summer growing season right now, much of the flowering being done already and development of the ears of corn and other vegetable edibles well underway, to continue for another month. Growing season started seriously a couple weeks ago, which means that we get maybe two months of farming and gardening activities before winter starts to bite us again.

[Kenny Bunkport]

As an amateur astronomer (hobbyist, really), I'll be glad to see dark skies every earlier in the evening.

[Mrs. Darla Ruth Schwerin]

That is too, pretty! My daughter visited Stonehenge and the tour guide told her all about the massive rocks and how they were brought there, from up to 200 miles away!...

[sig226]

Should I start singing the Spinal Tap song? :)

[SunkenCiv]

Stonehenge photo, so it's sort of a GGG topic.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. Thanks.

Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on or off the
"Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list or GGG weekly digest
-- Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)

[Dustbunny]

Thanks for the pics. Nothing like pics for those of us who are house bound.

[Salamander]

Did you catch the Tv special called "Rebuilding Stonehenge", by any chance?

The reconstructed it exactly using huge styrofoam blocks covered in concrete to mimic the stone, set the whole thing up on the plain and discovered a lot of *really* disturbing acoustic anomalies and that it was most likely built for the -winter- solstice; not the summer solstice.

Fascinating 2 hours of TV.