Summer Solstice in Fairbanks - II

20 June 2012
11:12 PM

9:00 PM to 11:00 PM

Facing North - 6/20 9:17 PM

Just after 9:00 PM, there still was plenty of light hitting the tree tops near our house.  The first view is from the deck outside our bedroom looking north (I didn't notice that I caught the roof in the upper right hand corner of the shot.  But the photo captures a moment in time, fleeting and only once this year, so I submit it as it is.  The one below shows the same section in the neighbor's yard as earlier today.  While there was still lingering sun down the utility trail behind our lot, the understory around our house was in full shade.

Looking northwest - 6/20 9:17 PM

I have taken this same perspective of our driveway as the year has progressed.  One of the first caught the midday, winter sun skimming along the tops of the trees in the center.  We live among the trees on the southeast side of the hill that is just starting to rise noticeably at our property, so even though it is very light out, we no longer had direct sunlight anywhere on our property, nor on that of our neighbors by 10:30 PM.

Same old, same old, but different - 6/20 10:32 PM

So, I took a drive to take pictures that could better tell the story of how amazing solstice is here. Describing our emotions about summer solstice invariably falls short of how we are affected by it.  Folks who live in Fairbanks year round embrace winter, the dark, snow, and the cold.  There is no way a person could survive sanely if there was not some part of him or her that understood, accepted, and even deeply loved winter.  Having said that, after the long winter, nearly everyone is overjoyed when spring and summer seasons are upon us.

Farmer's Loop Road looking east - 6/20 10:42 PM

Resident mowing the lawn - 6/20 10:43 PM

Late June and early July we revel in the sun's never ending dance with the earth and how the rhythm of that partnership can swirl into a powerful counterpoint to winter.  The photo below was taken from a narrow section of neighborhood road near the top of McGrath Road above our house.  Folks are out later, for obvious reasons, so every time I found a perspective that was best from some angle of the road, a car would come within a minute or two.  I was not happy with my first attempt because as I was beginning to focus, I could hear someone driving down the road toward me and took it quickly.  I turned back to try again.  Thankfully, the road was quiet with no one on it but me  - just long enough.

Northwest tip of Fairbanks and the Tanana Valley beyond in the summer evening mist - 6/20 10:58 PM

The needles on the white and black spruce reflect the lengthening of the sun's rays as its path dips toward the north for sunset.