Summer solstice

When is the summer solstice?

The midsummer date is set based on the planet’s rotational axis.

It’s decided based on the sun’s tilt towards the sun, which hits its maximum at 23° 26′ and falls between June 20 and June 22 in the northern hemisphere.

This year, the summer solstice will take place today (June 21).

What is the summer solstice?

The ‘longest’ day of the year marks the middle of summer.

This is because the tilt of the Earth’s axis is most aligned with the sun, providing us with the most daylight of the year.

After tomorrow, the nights will began to close in as our planet rotates away from the sun.

The date where Earth is the furthest from the star is marked by the winter solstice.

Summer solstice celebrations at Stonehenge

The Red Wheelbarrow

William Carlos Williams, 1883 - 1963

so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens.

Do you find this poem infuriating because of its simplicity or not?

Why isn't there any punctuation or capital letters?

The British Flag: a Symbol of Unity

The Union Jack is a fine expression of unity as well as diversity. The British flag incorporates the national symbols of three distinct countries, England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. In fact its name "Union Jack" emphasises the very nature of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland as a union of nations. The flag is also known by another name, this too, emphasising the idea of union: the "Union flag", perhaps a less common term but a little more precise. The countries comprising the British Isles are not inward-looking or isolated states with an insular mentality; together they constitute a powerful union that has spanned centuries. Recent devolution that gave Scotland its own Parliament and Wales its own Assembly has also emphasised the importance of individual national identities within the union without affecting the essential unity of Great Britain. On the contrary, it has strengthened it. Recognition of, and respect for national identities are an essential ingredients for effective union. The Union Jack symbolises all this: respect for individuality within a closely knit community.

The "Union Jack" or "Union Flag" is a composite design made up of three different national symbols:

What are the features the National Anthem of Great Britain focuses on?

Interesting Facts about the United Kingdom

• The word “Britain” is derived from the name of a Celtic tribe, the Brythons.
• The word “England” comes from “Angle-land,” or land of the Angli, or Angles, a Viking tribe that came across the North Sea and settled in the east and north. The French name for England, Angleterre, also literally means “Land of the Angles."
• At its zenith in the 18th century, the British Empire stretched 20% of the world’s surface and contained a quarter of the world’s population.
• Nowhere in England is more than 75 miles (121 km) from the sea.
• Windsor Castle is the largest royal home in the world. It is also the oldest continually inhabited royal residence in Britain, having been built by William the Conqueror around A.D. 1080.
• The first fish and chips restaurant was opened in 1860 in London by a Jewish immigrant named Joseph Malin.
• There is only a 21-mile (34-km) gap between England and France, and the countries are connected by the Channel Tunnel, which opened in 1994. It is the world’s second longest underground tunnel; Japan’s Seikan Tunnel is the first.
• Big Ben does not refer to the famous clock, but actually to the bell.
• Every day, the British drink 165 million cups of tea, which is over 20 times more than the average American.
• Champagne was invented in England by scientist Christopher Merret in 1662.
• James Bond’s code “007” was inspired by the author Ian Fleming’s bus route from Canterbury to London.
• More languages (300) are spoken in London than in any other country in the world.
• The London subway, or the “Tube,” is one of the oldest in the world. The 409 escalators in the Tube cover a distance every week which is approximately equivalent to several trips around the globe.
• Britain is the only country in the world which doesn’t have its name on its postage stamps.
• The sport of football, or soccer, supposedly got its start in England when Anglo-Saxon farmworkers plowing a field unearthed the skull of a Danish warrior killed in battle a few years earlier. To show their still bitter feelings towards the Danes and to amuse themselves, they began kicking the skull among them. This early form of football was called “kicking the Dane’s head.”

What interesting fact impressed you the most? Elaborate.

The Sick Rose 

Related Poem Content Details

by william blake

O Rose thou art sick. 

The invisible worm, 

That flies in the night 

In the howling storm: 

Has found out thy bed 

Of crimson joy: 

And his dark secret love 

Does thy life destroy.

Why is the rose sick?
What is the invisible worm?