Happy 1st day of summer!

 A sweet, succulent peach for this year's summer solstice. Could it be a sign?

It's a beautiful summer day in New York City. After a few warm and sometimes hot days this past week, the temperatures have dipped slightly, and with almost no clouds in the sky, it's the perfect first day of summer. 

• DIPPED - decrease slightly

The first day of summer, of course, also marks the summer solstice and the day of the year with the most amount of daylight. I'm always fascinated by what happens in the heavens whenever the solstices and the equinoxes come around and love the fact that the amount of daylight increases and decreases throughout the year. I guess I like being reminded of the bigger picture and that larger phenomena are at work beyond what we see here on earth. 

• THE HEAVENS - outer space; stars and planets
• SOLSTICE - beginning of summer and winter; days with the least or the most amount of daylight in the year
• EQUINOX - beginning of spring and fall; days with about equal amounts of daylight and night time
• COME AROUND - arrive
• PHENOMENON - event; fact (phenomena, pl.)

Work has been very hectic, especially the past two weeks, so I'm taking some time off today to catch up on some personal projects. My web page (thesmallguidesite.com) definitely needs some attention, and I'm thinking of another redesign although it will probably happen gradually. Thanks for all of you who continue to visit. Your visits average about 5 minutes each, which makes me happy. :-) I'm thinking of posting the most popular pages, so you'll have an idea what fellow English learners are checking out at the small guide site.

• HECTIC - busy

I wish you all a wonderful summer. I just had a peach a while ago, and I'm having the other one (pictured above) later. I'm surely going to devour it as the first one was so sweet and succulent. It was a nice surprise biting into something so juicy, and on the summer solstice! Perhaps it's a sign from the heavens of a pleasant summer this year. :-)

• DEVOUR - eat fast, greedily
• SUCCULENT - juicy

All the best!