Midsummer nights

My idea was to be up and take photos during the midsummer night (i.e. night between Midsummer's eve and Midsummer's day), but it rained. A lot. And then the sky was heavy with dark clouds obscuring the twilight. Below is a pic taken from the evening between two rain showers. Pretty, but not much light at all. It didn't feel like a good choice of a wakeful night.

However, as I found it hard to sleep last night I was up then instead. First I took a few pics around midnight, then I read The Whisperers for a few hours (the tome has over 700 pages so it's taking me a while to read) before, in vain, trying to sleep. So I got up around 03:30 in the morning and then again half an hour later when there were more light. Was too tired to stay up longer and see the actual sunrise, which I checked was round 04:20, so just photos of dawn, not a sunrise. I rarely get photos of sunrises for two reasons: I'm not a morning person and the view to the east is obscured by trees. It can happen i june because I stay up a few extra hours: being used to going to bed after midnight it's not too hard to wait for the light to return.

These are some of the pics I took last night when staying up, waiting for dawn. Please excuse the quality: I didn't have a tripod so some pics are a bit blurry and others are noisy due to the minimal light. If not otherwise noted all photos are facing north (exception being photos of the rapeseed field, which is to the west/southwest).

22:50 (barely one hour after the sun set)

Midnight

03:30

Looking back at the moon over our garden. The pic above is taken facing northwest, looking for the sun.

04:00

Because of the weather this wasn't the best summer night to stay up, the rain clouds and cold "ruined" it, but otherwise there's something magical about experiencing a night in june outdoors. Watching dusk turn into dawn, listening to the birds sing and the cows and horses graze, hearing the hum from the neighbour's stables, feeling the lukewarm night air and the dewy grass, seeing all the white flowers floating in the darkness of the foliage. It's just beautiful. So peaceful. So joyous.

It's a pleasure any summer night, but when the weather is warm and the sky cloud free it's something special. Truly magical. I'm keeping my fingers crossed there's be such a night this year -- before the nights get too dark and too long again.