Yesterday was officially the start of summer in the Northern Hemisphere as well as the longest day of sunlight. On this day, the equator receives 12 hours of sunlight, the North Pole gets 24 hours (gasp!), and we here in Alberta receive approximately 16 ½ hours. I love the long days! The only problem is that we don’t feel like it’s time to go to bed until around midnight because the sun doesn’t set until after 10 pm.

The folks in Australia are experiencing the opposite – their days are extremely short. And the frozen critters living at the South Pole get 24 hours of darkness. Wow!

In December we have the winter solstice; on that day Alberta usually gets about 8 hours of sunlight. It’s quite a contrast! Our winter days are roughly half as long as our summer days. For now we will just focus on enjoying the sun-filled days. Long live summer!