It is seldom that a day is perfect. Today however was the indisputable exception. Naturally the thought loomed in the background that it was “just one of those things“; that is, the entire serendipity of the occasion was not to be dismissed.  I hadn’t after all done anything in particular which I would reckon to have fomented the agreeable result. Yet I similarly confess that upon awakening this morning things began unfolding with unanticipated succour and appeal. From the start things were looking well!

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Impromptu gatherings are especially happy events in the summer when the balmy weather is at its seasonal peak. Today is the First Day of Summer.

“The summer solstice, also known as estival solstice or midsummer, occurs when one of the Earth’s poles has its maximum tilt toward the Sun. It happens twice yearly, once in each hemisphere (Northern and Southern). For that hemisphere, the summer solstice is when the Sun reaches its highest position in the sky and is the day with the longest period of daylight. Within the Arctic circle (for the northern hemisphere) or Antarctic circle (for the southern hemisphere), there is continuous daylight around the summer solstice. On the summer solstice, Earth’s maximum axial tilt toward the Sun is 23.44°. Likewise, the Sun’s declinationfrom the celestial equator is 23.44°.

The summer solstice occurs during summer. This is the June solstice in the Northern Hemisphere and the December solstice in the Southern Hemisphere. Depending on the shift of the calendar, the summer solstice occurs sometime between June 20 and June 22 in the Northern Hemisphere and between December 20 and December 23 in the Southern Hemisphere. The same dates in the opposite hemisphere are referred to as the winter solstice.

Since prehistory, the summer solstice has been seen as a significant time of year in many cultures, and has been marked by festivals and rituals. Traditionally, in many temperate regions (especially Europe), the summer solstice is seen as the middle of summer and referred to as “midsummer”. Today, however, in some countries and calendars it is seen as the beginning of summer.“

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Americans are at last expressing what has proven to be a slow awakening to the offensive and incomprehensible behaviour of their president Donald J. Trump. Since his inauguration Trump’s conduct has regularly been marred by such a shocking nature that people of standard moral and social education have until recently been either unwilling or unable to call it what it is. Now however their is a very real sense among conscientious persons that Trump threatens the fabric of American society with his potential insane words and actions.

“There are few surviving sources about the reign of Caligula, although he is described as a noble and moderate emperor during the first six months of his rule. After this, the sources focus upon his cruelty, sadism, extravagance, and sexual perversion, presenting him as an insane. While the reliability of these sources is questionable, it is known that during his brief reign, Caligula worked to increase the unconstrained personal power of the emperor as opposed to countervailing powers within the principate. He directed much of his attention to ambitious construction projects and luxurious dwellings for himself and initiated the construction of two aqueducts in Rome: the Aqua Claudia and the Anio Novus. During his reign, the empire annexed the client kingdom of Mauretania as a province.“

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Today was a balmy summer day of incomparable lethargy! Getting out of the apartment was no challenge in spite of the soaring temperature or the pandemic. What however presented a moderate trial was achieving a degree of novelty. Fortunately for me I long ago adopted a preference for what some would look down their noses and call the lesser scope of habit and repetition. Nonetheless I flatter myself to presume that whatever I do – whether habitual or repeated – has at least an element of artistry or discovery depending upon the nature of the undertaking. A mere drive in the car for example affords me the dual ingredients of artistry (the bucolic country landscape) and discovery (insinuating the nearby cafés and restaurants). When wintering on Hilton Head Island or in Florida it was nothing for me to recollect wistfully the pleasure of a summer’s drive among the hamlets and villages which dot the landscape of surrounding Lanark, Renfrew and Leeds Grenville Counties. Our repeated sojourns to Burnstown, Calabogie and Ivy Lea Club on the St. Lawrence Seaway have inured us to the tranquillity and surprisingly agreeable resorts within a short distance of home – where “rural and urban lifestyles co-mingle in diverse and historic communities“.

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The County landscape has transformed into one verdant blossom! The burgeoning leaves are a youthful emerald green. Once exposed pathways are now shady corridors. Water levels are stable, no longer violent with springtime rush. The fragrant air is clear and warm. We’re rapidly approaching the First Day of Summer in style!

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By design I relinquished myself to today’s implacable summer drowsiness. The fatigue felt at times irreversible. Accordingly I relieved myself of whatever activity I would normally tackle even in this predominantly indolent state. This meant there was no bicycling, a purgative routine I am customarily reluctant to forgo. Not having that rewarding springboard from which to leap was a  decided deprivation. Yet I have noticed on occasion that a so-called “break” from repeated physical exercise affords its own stimulation the next day.

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As the human population slowly recovers its more public involvement I noticed today in particular a marked proliferation of people in the bakery section of the grocery store. Everyone – young and old – was milling about the bread aisles and centre consoles where the boxed sweets were piled. Other on-lookers (specifically two full-figured girls) were shamelessly transfixed before the long glass counter within which were displayed models of the available cakes, pies and cookies. It was 4:30 pm on a Sunday afternoon, a decidedly dangerous pre-dinner engagement. I accordingly proceeded delicately and confined my abuse to date squares, lemon tarts, 7-layer bars and 9-grain bread. And butter!

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The day is rapidly approaching when nothing will matter. I say this not from disparagement but rather in response to the forceful reality of change and decay. In the lead-up to the end of Universe (at least as I know it to be) the once seductive allure of people, things and events is diminishing. The evolution is for the most part welcome – no doubt a collateral to the adage that Nature teaches us how to die. Characterizing the transmogrification as distillation perhaps enables a less wistful result. Personally I prefer the limitations of old age, what for me facilitate both tranquillity and clarity. After a lifetime of agenda, necessity and planning it is a welcome revision to deal only with what is at hand and with what naturally captivates my focus or interest.

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Somethings just don’t last. This morning we responded to the summertime call to the golf club for breakfast on the patio overlooking the first green. In the narrow sphere of our being the golf club has become over the years a cherished haunt for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It never fails as a successful calling card for visitors to Lanark County. Nor do I forget that it was in the original club house (prior to the reconstruction of a new one following a mid-winter fire) that Galligan & Sheffield, Barristers &c. hired me in 1976 thereby initiating my law practice here.

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Whenever I set my alarm for early awakening – as I did last evening for five o’clock this morning in anticipation of my appointment at the car dealership in the city – it translates into a sleepless night and I end clawing my way out from under the sheets as much as an hour before the scheduled arousal. This particular rendezvous had at least the advantage of being an anticipated improvement – the addition of a missing decal to the front quarter-panel. Though the elevation was purely restorative it happily signalled the last of a series of steps lately undergone to perfect the mechanics and other features of my new vehicle. Essentially after two months of repeated attention to this and that I was finally afforded deliverance from endless anxiety.

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