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Posts Tagged ‘sunshine’

Summertime Phototime

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on July 10, 2024| 13 Comments »

Clover photos: Suzanne.
What the propane-delivery guy left for us.

Summer sunshine is always good for photos. And when we haven’t been swimming in a pea-soup fog here, we’ve had beautiful sunshine. A few of today’s photos have little stories that go with them, too.

Here’s one. In New Shoreham, we still need propane. The person who delivered our last tank somehow noticed a four-leaf-clover in the grass by the garage. When we came back from wherever we were that day, we found a note and a small display under a piece of plastic bottle. How amazing is that? I called the propane company to say thank you.

Water lilies are still the flower for July despite the changes to our climate.

Rosa Rugosa grows everywhere. Also this other wild rose. My app calls that one a China rose.

Next is the Painted Rock, a path to the bluffs, the eroding bluffs, a cactus (What? In New England?), and one granddaughter’s concept of a modern hotel. She tells me that there is a village in this hotel and a park with trees on top.

Boats in the harbor conclude today’s collection.

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Norway Makes Sunshine

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 17, 2014| 3 Comments »

It’s been surprisingly cold this April week, but at least we have had some sunshine. What if we lived in Norway, where people go for months without the sun? How would we manage? For that matter, how do Norwegians manage?

Suzanne Daley writes in the NY Times about one Norwegian town that got fed up with light deprivation and decided to try something new.

“Yearning for sunlight has been a part of life in [Rjukan, a] quaint old factory town in central Norway for as long as anyone can remember. Here, the sun disappears behind a mountain for six months of the year.

“It is worse for newcomers, of course, like Martin Andersen, a conceptual artist who arrived here 12 years ago and would find himself walking and walking, searching for any last puddle of sunshine to stand in. It was on one of these walks that he had the idea of slapping some huge mirrors up against the mountain to the north of town and bouncing some rays down on Rjukan.

“The town eventually agreed to try, and last fall, three solar- and wind-powered mirrors that move in concert with the sun started training a beam of sunlight into the town square. Thousands of people turned out for the opening event, wearing sunglasses and dragging out their beach chairs. And afterward, many residents say, life changed.

“The town became more social. Leaving church on Sundays, people would linger in the square, talking, laughing and drinking in the sun, trying not to look up directly into the mountain mirrors. On a recent morning, Anette Oien had taken a seat on newly installed benches in the square, her eyes closed, her face turned up. She was waiting for her partner to run an errand, and sitting in the light seemed much nicer than sitting in a car. ‘It’s been a great contribution to life here,’ she said.” More here.

Daley writes the article like a folk tale. You could imagine your own ending.

Photo: Kyrre Lien for The New York Times
In winter, the town square of Rjukan, Norway, is illuminated by sunlight reflected from three computer-controlled mirrors on a mountain overlooking the town.

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