We stalwart adventurers of the Northern hemisphere enjoy but an attenuated expression of superlative summer weather!  Today was one of those magical golden days with fluffy white clouds clustered beneath the azure dome, a light wind at times almost still, emerald green corn stalks wavering in the fields and the site of laden passenger vehicles with attached trailers carrying boats and canoes. Though I always recall with fervency the advent of the summer solstice on or about June 21st each year, it is more probable that the most popular mark of summer’s brilliance surrounds the two national holidays in Canada and the United States of America celebrated almost contemporaneously (by no coincidence I am sure) on July 1st and 4th respectively. Those latter dates convey recognizable clarity to the holiday and temperate purpose.

The Northern Hemisphere is home to approximately 6.40 billion people which is around 87.0% of the earth’s total human population of 7.36 billion people.

A customary remark by any who have spent long periods in the sub-tropical zones is the wistful recollection of the seasons – summer, spring, autumn and winter. It is an affection which to the uninitiated is difficult to comprehend. Yet like so many other characteristics of our human experience the strength lies in its variety, neither its heat nor frost nor anything in between. Accordingly it is by intention that I devote myself whenever possible to the bliss of the moment, that no hour of summer’s singular manifestation shall go unheeded, no opportunity missed to stare aimlessly into the streams of intense yellow sunshine and to submit to its absorption.

Speaking of which, that’s another detail within my lengthy lifetime which has undergone distinct reconsideration; namely, the avoidance of too much radiation. It wasn’t that long ago – say fifty years ago perhaps – that I literally plastered myself with olive oil to ensure capture of all the goodness of Sol. As a token of my abandonment of the erstwhile preposterous hobby of frying oneself completely in the hopes of transitioning to the deeper molecules of brown pigment reportedly dormant within us all, I now indulge myself in the moderate luxury of sunning by sitting on the patio for 25 minutes only in the early morning slants of subatomic particles.  I purposively do not remove my watch, socks or shoes.  And most certainly I do not descend to the vulgarity of removing any of my clothes!  Though it all smacks of caution, the performance is in fact designed to retain the traces of unblemished purity below the watch strap, under the rings and beneath the collar; and, more importantly to render the appearance of casual disregard for the chemical perfection of complexion. What, I reason, could be more palatian than rejection of the sought-after ambition to get all sides of one’s carcass thoroughly bronzed. It is the epitome of nonchalance seemingly to ignore the threads of summer – though the scheme does anything but! I call it sophistication and refinement – the same topical allure of the “less is more” paradigm one frequently hears in the kitchen.