Downhill all the way to December

Yesterday evening, the sun reached its northernmost point in the sky, the summer solstice. This morning we had the year's earliest sunrise, which I woke up early this morning to photograph. And I was in luck - a totally overcast sky would have been no good, while a cloudless sky would have yielded a dull photo. So here it is - untweaked in Photoshop - the image as captured directly on my Nikon D40's chip - the earliest sunrise of the year, 2011.

Click on the image to see it full size on your monitor; look into the sun and meditate upon the meaning of light and life...

From now on, until 22 December, the day's length will get shorter and shorter. Today, we have in Warsaw 16 hours and 51 minutes of daylight. By 22 December, it will be 7 hours and 38 minutes. But no need to fall into Seasonal Affective Disorder just yet - over the next month, we'll lose less than 50 minutes of daylight - the shorter days only start getting noticeable around the end of August (although there's an old Polish saying 'od Św. Anki, zimne noce i chłodne poranki' - from St. Anne's Day - 26 July - the nights get cold and mornings cool.)

Astronomically (rather than meteorologically) speaking, summer has only now begun, though the year - and the sun - is now in the descendent. For me summer starts when I can set off for work in the morning wearing only one layer. In six months time we'll be wrapped up in multiple layers of thick clothing, shivering at bus stops and eking out those few hours of daylight at the weekends having travelled to and from work in darkness. But for now let us be merry. There's an old English saying 'make hay while the sun shines'.

It was 70 years ago this morning when Hitler's Germany mounted an all-out attack on the Soviet Union - Operation Barbarossa - the largest military operation in human history, an event crucial in understanding the history of this region. Which prompts me to link a link that my cousin Teresa sent me from Canada - a review of Timothy Snyder's crucial book, Bloodlands. It's just come out in Poland, and is billboard-advertised, so big sales are expected here. The book has had outstanding critical reviews since publication, and will enter the canon of central and eastern European studies.

This time last year:
What do I want for Poland

This time two years ago:
Summer holiday starts drizzly

This time three years ago:
Israeli Boeing 707 visits Okęcie