Summer Solstice

In the Nordic lands, the solstice is marked by the night of Sankthans – midsummer is celebrated by a mighty bonfire topped delightfully with a burning witch.  Actually, despite the visceral European history of burning witches at the stake, the reality is that the burning figurine is a symbolic gesture of driving away the evil spritis.  The Solstice is filled with magical forces of nature, good and bad.  Herbs picked and remedies made on this night are particularly potent.

The five scoop waffle icecream topped with sugary foam and a flødeboller was indeed potent… And a perfect accompaniment to a grey and rainy dusk on a windy beach roasting against a big-ass bonfire.

Super Special with flodeboller 

The summer solstice in the northern part of Jutland, Denmark, sees barely two hours of twilight between midnight and 2am – the dusk is exceedingly drawn out after a 10.10pm sunset, and the dawn equally sluggish towards the 4.34am sunrise.  In between the wet and cloudy days there were a couple of beautiful days to bask in. 

The most northerly tip of Denmark is Skagen, terminating with the mobile sandspit of Grenen.  Skagen is famous as a bottleneck of bird migration, particularly large proportions of the raptors heading to Norway and Sweden pass through here.  Rather better to visit during the equinox seasons then?

Nevertheless paddling in the shallows where two seas meet were both Common Seal and a much rarer Grey Seal, of which there are less than 50 in Danish waters.

at Grenen
with one foot in the Skagerrak Sea
and the other in the Kattegat Sea 

Without embarrassing her too much – these pales in comparison to the simple pleasures of spending a precious week with Mia.  We had been reluctantly prepared for a long eight months apart – important work duties occupying her for the northern spring and summer, only planning to arrive in South Africa in September for the Crowned Eagle field season.  All thanks to Mias employer who made a very thoughtful gesture as an appreciation of her hard work this season – this short trip has made the next ten weeks seem not-so-unbearably-long.