Midsummer Eve: A brief hiatus for this blog.

The Garden will be quiet this coming week. I’ll be on vacation for the next few days, recharging my batteries and taking a well-deserved breather after the end of the school year and a busy period of making videos and doing various tasks related to the launch of my new science fiction novel, Faraway Star. Today is also the day of the summer solstice, very close to the holiday, celebrated in many parts of Europe, called Midsummer. While it’s not a precise date, you could make an argument that this is “Midsummer Eve,” and thus a good day to go on vacation.

The header of this article—which could double as an entry in the Historic Painting series—is called “Midsummer Eve on Skagen Beach,” by Danish painter P.S. Krøyer. Technically this is an alternate version of that painting, a preliminary one done in 1903, with the final version having been completed in 1906. Most of the figures in the painting are family or friends of the artist, depicted at an artist’s colony. Midsummer Eve was typically celebrated in Krøyer’s part of Denmark, the peninsula known as Jutland (and made famous a decade later by the greatest naval battle of World War I), with bonfires on the beach which is what this painting depicts. I chose this version because it’s a little brighter than the final one, which even Krøyer himself said came out too dark. In any event it’s a fine depiction of this old European tradition.

I hope the summer brings you good and restful times. I’ll be back on the job next week. Until then, enjoy the long days and starry nights.

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