Sun Burst

Sunburst Chairs on the Terrace

Sunburst Chairs on the Terracec

A bit of a sunburst to celebrate the sun. Summer begins – TONIGHT!

June 20-21 is one of two solstices, days when the rays of the sun directly strike one of the two tropical latitude lines. June 21 marks the beginning of summer in the northern hemisphere and heralds the beginning of winter in the southern hemisphere. This year the solstice occurs and summer begins in the Northern Hemisphere on June 20 at 6:59 p.m. Central Daylight Time.

This is the first time since 1896 – 112 years – that the summer solstice occurs before June 21. The time for the recording is measured at 11:59 pm Greenwich Mean Time on June 20. Made it by a minute!

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These are the famous, nearly landmark status chairs on the Memorial Union Terrace at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. The terrace overlooks one of the city’s urban lakes, Lake Mendota, and is the place to be on lovely summer evenings. Everyone in the Madison area who has a camera and is co-ordinated enough to press the shutter has at least one photo of these chairs. They are so darn photogenic!

Me and My Sherpa

Today is one of those milestone days, the special ones people celebrate because so many years ago on this certain date, a special event happened.

Today is a special day for my Sherpa and me.

My Sherpa is the guy who hangs around with me and lugs my camera gear when we go on our weekend photo shoots. I’m the one that gets to ooh and aah and click the shutter, and my Sherpa is the one that cheers me on. He’s also the one that usually pulls out the checkbook at the camera supply store and signs the receipt. He’s the one that says, “Go for it!” when I get crazy ideas.

Sherpa and Me

Sherpa and Me © 2008 Bo Mackison

Sometimes we get tired and feel rather down on the ground and spend days searching for the best way to climb all those stairs that make our knees ache. But together we climb to the top, and it’s doable because we don’t have to go it alone. We struggle upwards together.

Me and My Sherpa

Shadow Play, Me and My Sherpa © 2008 Bo Mackison

Other times we’ve made it to the top and we stand together and cheer. Cheer for the really good parts of life and cheer because we are lucky to share our lives this time around. Cheer because we’ve fought the hard parts and survived – and survived to smile again.

32 years ago today, it was 90 degrees in central Illinois and together we stood in a packed church and while I sobbed and he cracked jokes, we both managed to say “I do” at the right time. We both made a promise to do our best, to live our lives together, to be there for each other – good times, bad times, sickness, health. So far we’ve done just that.

And so today we celebrate . . . because life is good. Together.

Brocach – The Badger Den

Brocach - Gaelic for Badger Den

Brocach – Gaelic for Badger Den © 2008 Bo Mackison

For those of you not intimate with University of Wisconsin sports, the UW-Madison teams are the Badgers. As in “Go, Wisconsin Badgers!”

Brocach is the Gaelic word for Badger Den. What a great name for a Madison pub on the Capitol Square, just across the street from the State Capitol building.

This wonderful bagpiper was playing at Saturday’s Farmers Market.

Snow Plow

Not Your Typical Snow Plow

Not Your Typical Snow Plow

Once a valuable piece of equipment, this field plow;
Now it stands, simply a snow plow.

Back to snow and Wisconsin for a dose of reality before returning to my travel photos of the tropics. (that honestly are depressing me right now.)

Baby, it’s COLD outside. On my recent travels, I was disappointed when the temperature hovered in the low 70s. Now I’d be happy, no – ecstatic, if the thermometer would read above zero.

Happy 2008 Sunrise

New Year Sunrise © 2008

As day welcomes the sun, we welcome a New Year.

Hope 2008 is happy, healthy and sunny for all of you. Happy New Years Day!