The sun rose at 3:18 this morning, and it will set at 12:30 tomorrow morning, for 21 hours 12 minutes with the sun above the horizon. That’s 29 minutes less than a week ago. The sun still never gets much more than 2° below the horizon, though, so it’s still far too light to see stars or even noctilucent clouds. Or fireworks. I depend on PBS for my annual fireworks fix, and I do wish they’d keep the camera on the sky once the fireworks start.

We’re definitely into thunderstorm season, with heavy but spotty rain and small stream flood warnings. Temperatures are slightly on the cool side, with daily highs around 70° to 75° F, and the forecast is mostly cloudy with showers for the next week. Aside from the gusts that go with thunderstorms, the winds are light.

It’s raining right now, as it has been rather often lately. A slow, steady rain, but we may have downpours interspersed. Or brief episodes of sunlight, for that matter. The sun came out for a while around 10 pm Saturday evening, lighting the north face of the house and coming in the north windows in spite of the surrounding trees.

The garden is growing rapidly, though not as fast as if it were a little sunnier. So, I am sorry to say, are the weeds. Still, with all the rain it is very green around here. At least it’s not in the 3-digit temperatures, or a season of unrelenting smoke.