Daylight at midnight....

Several folk have asked how light is it at night at this time of the year. Well today’s photo (appearing here by kind permission of Steven Heddle of Kirkwall) shows Kirkwall Harbour at midnight on mid-summer’s night. As you can see – it’s very light!

Today sunrise was at 0402 and sunset is 22.08, while in London it’s 04.46 and 21.21. If it’s been a grey cloudy day then I sometimes need the lights on indoor just before going to bed, but often I can sit in the conservatory until bed-time without the need of artificial light. And I find I need to draw the blinds to shut out the daylight when I go to bed else it’s difficult to get to sleep. And of course the daylight in the early morning wakes me up. Having said that I just LOVE this time of year with the loooong days, whatever the weather. It’s hard to imagine in the long dark winter months that it can ever get light again, but each year it does!

I also love this time of year when it’s warm enough to have windows open and to hear the waves lapping gently at the shore, and the seals calling from the rocks. One thing that amazed me was the number of birds that fly around at night, calling out. Some nights it gets so noisy with bird alarm calls that I get up and shut the window!