Columbine

Sunrise this morning was at 4:25 am; sunset this evening will be at 11:12 pm for 18 hours 47 ½ minutes with the sun above the horizon. The daily gain has started to slow down – we’re picking up less than 7 minutes a day, now. Nautical twilight is essentially gone for the summer; the sun is never more than 6 ° below the horizon.

Delphinium

It’s finally started to warm up. The temperature was 53°F a little after 10:30 this morning, and I was working outdoors in shorts. The moon, almost full, is low on the southern horizon near solar midnight – a counterpoint to the sun being only a little below the northern horizon.

The Famers' Market is mostly arts, crafts and food this time of year.

Summer is not a good time for star-gazing or aurora watching in Fairbanks. Not that the stars and aurorae aren’t there, just that the sky background never gets dark enough to see them.

To compensate, the garden is waking up. The white iris, the daylilies, the white violets and the chives have been showing green for a week or more, but the delphiniums and the columbines have now joined them. Buds are swelling on the wild roses and the birch trees, giving the birches a pink cast that should soon turn to green. The Farmers’ Market is open, though it’s still more crafters than growers. Spring is here!

Those pinkish trees will turn green soon. Can't be soon enough for me!