That was 5:21am on May 21st, as the sun was still moving further north; it passed back through this building on its way back south, about July 21. I was out of town then so I missed it. As I miss the sun almost entirely these days, since we’ve reached the period of the year where it doesn’t shine through on this north side of my apartment, but only for a short bit of the afternoon from my western and one southern window. Ah well. Below, you can see both how the building site across the street from me was progressing three weeks later, and how much farther the sun had moved north, by the 12th of June. I should remember to take a photo so you can see how far they’ve come on that construction – it’s moving fast.
This was May 21st as the rising sun headed further north. I missed its pass through this building last week on its way back south :-(, because I’ve been out of town for a bit.
Our coastal-Norway cruise wrapped up early Sunday in Kirkenes, a town closer to Murmansk than to any other large-ish city I know of. It’s at 69N degrees; the arctic circle starts at 66N degrees. The above photo, taken shortly before noon, and two minutes after the take-off photo below right so at whatever altitude our plane had gained by that point, shows you the sun managing to peak both through some clouds, and over the horizon. We knew that at ground level the sun had only begun to peak above the horizon the week before we arrived in Kirkenes, and in general the most we had during the three full days we spent inside the arctic circle were maybe five hours of long dawn / dusk light (the same, with the sun actually above the horizon and maybe peaking through clouds) for a couple hours in the middle of it. It messes with one’s head and sense of meal and bedtimes, when full dark lasts until 9am and resumes by 2pm 🙂
Last day of my third full year based here in Amsterdam, a city in which I’m now always happy to “come home.” It celebrates its 750th anniversary next year, with that light shining up into the sky originating from that first settlement. There’ll be anniversary celebration events all year, which you can check out if you’re planning or thinking about visiting the city. I’ll share a few shots of a recent sunrise over Sloterplas (where I live), to wrap up this year in ‘city views’ from home. 🙂
2023 saw my first — and second! — visit to Geneva, with the second visit giving me the chance to watch the sun rise over mountains and lakes in France and Switzerland (above), with distant views including Mt Blanc back in France on the “far side” of Switzerland, as it were, from the side on which our plane had entered. The return flight from that first visit was an evening flight that let me watch the sun set over France and then watch cities over France, Belgium and NL light up (below) before we came in for our landing at Schiphol here in A’dam. One gallery for each flight, below.
Last year, I proudly completed 367 days in a row of posting at least one entry on this blog per day on January 23rd while I was actually visiting our teams in Iraq, then took most of February and March off before resuming the daily-post pattern on March 29th, while I was in California on vacation. Today’s my 284th day in a row of at least one post per day since that resumption; it’s also the first weekend day in the new year, so I’ve decided to start posting larger, photo-heavier entries to wrap up any of the photos I took in 2023 that I’d still like to post. I suspect that I’ll find energy and time to keep up the daily posts until I’ve finished my stock of unposted but post-worthy photos from last year, and then take another break of undetermined length. Today’s entry is just about all the photos remaining from my restorative and beautiful week with my meditation group on Star Island, the last week of August last year. I’ve grouped some of the photos in galleries with a bit of a theme (above, rainier or foggier days; below, sunrises and sunsets), and then put the rest in a huge gallery that will shuffle the order randomly — all with the aim of sharing with you some that little island’s delightfully shifting energy, moods and views. Enjoy 🙂
Some views of late-summer dawn over Gosport Harbor, taken from Star Island and showing both Cedar Island and a part of Smuttynose Island as well. A small celebration of the fact that at home in northern Europe, we’ve nearly reached that yearly solstice corner where the number of minutes each day on which the sun is above our horizon will start increasing again, for the next six months at least 🙂
Splurging our last photos of that lovely early-morning walk around Boston harbor in mid-August all on this post, given that we’ve since accumulated many photos well suited to this series on two trips to Geneva, plus the usual Amsterdam opportunities and more 🙂
2023 saw my first — and second! — visit to Geneva, with the second visit giving me the chance to watch the sun rise over mountains and lakes in France and Switzerland (above), with distant views including Mt Blanc back in France on the “far side” of Switzerland, as it were, from the side on which our plane had entered. The return flight from that first visit was an evening flight that let me watch the sun set over France and then watch cities over France, Belgium and NL light up (below) before we came in for our landing at Schiphol here in A’dam. One gallery for each flight, below.
(so much world, so little time....) 