Late NIght Walks

In midsummer, when the days are sooooo long and the evening sun lingers way longer than in most places, the shadows are wonderful!

I took this picture around 10:30 pm right behind my apartment.

We stay in a wondrous place surrounded with park-like grounds.

We are so grateful for the beauty abounding out our door.

The bird sanctuary for the migrating geese and sandhill cranes is hundreds of acres

of fields and woods with trails meandering through it.

Rather hard to get a clear picture while that huge sun dominates the sky.

But the night was late when I walked the fields. Just a few birds were here a few weeks ago,

but that will be changing once August gets underway.

Our summer jobs are on opposite shifts and I am sleeping when Jack gets in late at night and he is sleeping when I leave early in the morning hours. We don't meet in the middle.

But-----

On the few nights when I don't have to get up work early the next morning,

I wait expectantly for Jack to come home from work, sneakers on.

(Does anyone call athletic shoes "sneakers", anymore? )

This is when we head out for our midnight walks.

This is our time to reflect on the day, admire the colors in the midnight sky, and slow down our breathing. We are most blessed to live in this particular place with beauty, nature and tons of open spaces right out our door. The colors of the midnight sky change with each walk.

There are displays of flowers all over these grounds, like this one in an antique wagon.

The landscaping is wonderful and the flowers are growing bigger and brighter every day.

We walk along, holding hands, talking softly about our life and our gratitude for this moment.

"Bedtime" is a rather ambiguous term in this Land of the Midnight Sun.

We laughed to see these young boys playing with their dad at the playground near us.

It was AFTER midnight when we took their picture.

School opening before long will be a shock to these little guys.

In the past 2 weeks we've seen a big change in the sun's angle.

There are even hours of dark tucked somewhere around 2 AM.

6-7 minutes of light is lost daily. Our midnight walks will be coming to an end.

I hate to see them go. Please stay a bit longer, Mr. Sun.