Blog entry

Summer Fun - Artisan Handmade

Even though summer has not officially arrived - the Summer Solstice will show up on Thursday, June 21 at 4:07 a.m. Mountain Time here in the Borderlands - thermometers tell another story.  June is the month for triple digits here with a high UV index. Then the temperatures cool down when the monsoon season arrives with its amazing lightning displays and much needed rain.  Despite the June heat, we go about our daily lives enjoying the out of doors, albeit in the mornings and evenings mostly: gardening, cooking on the grill, hiking, star gazing, birding, etc. With an altitude of 3740’, we still have gloriously cool mornings and evenings to enjoy being outside.

Summer Heat - Wonderful Handmade Wednesday on Indiemade

With the summer solstice rapidly approaching, I decided it was time to feature hot, hot, HOT colored artisan handmade items in oranges, reds and yellow.  But before I do, (since I am a huge science geek), I thought I’d share a bit of about sunrises, sunsets and the summer solstice.  The solstice here in the Texas Borderlands will take place on Tuesday, June 20, 2017 at 10:24 pm MDT.  Most people think that, because the solstice signifies the longest day of the year (or the shortest, in the southern hemisphere), the earliest sunrise and the latest sunset happens on that day.  But that is not true.  The exact date of earliest sunrises and latest sunsets varies with latitude.  At mid-northern latitudes (say Philadelphia at 40 degrees north latitude), the earliest sunrises of the year happens on June 14 and the latest sunset on June 27.  The farther south you go in latitude, the earlier the earliest sunrises become and the later the latest sunset are.  For instance, the earliest sunrise here in El Paso has already passed - on June 11 - and the latest sunset isn’t until June 30.