Litha 2021

Last Monday (21st June) it was Litha aka Midsummer/the Summer Solstice. (Or if you're in North America it was Sunday the 20th for you.) :) As I mentioned in the Litha Round-up post, I usually celebrate by having salad and lemonade. This year I made my usual tomato and onion salad and "Hello Kitty" lemonade.

The tomato and onion salad is a recipe from The Kitchen Witch book by Soraya. This year I used red onion, like I did for Litha 2019. I decided to use red onion after I made Kachumbari (Kenyan tomato and onion salad) for Beltane that year. 

I had my salad with some food from the shops- chicken drumsticks, ciabatta bread (I wanted that for Beltane but couldn't find any), potato salad and coleslaw. I had the lemonade with my lunch too. The lemonade is a recipe from a Hello Kitty book! You can see it here: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2013/08/summer-drinks.html

 Here are a couple of pictures:

Sorry the picture isn't the best light!

 

I also made some rice pudding again this year I was inspired by a recipe in the Llewellyn's 2017 Sabbats Almanac for cold rice pudding, but I used the recipe from the pudding rice packet! It looked similar to the one I made in 2017 which you can see here: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2017/06/litha-2017.html

I lit a white candle in the evening since I couldn't find any orange or yellow ones. I'll have to look online next year; they seem to be hard to get in the shops these days! I like to have a candle because Litha is a fire festival and the longest day. Here's a pic: 

 

 

I was planning to go up to my favourite nature reserve on a hill in the evening to take sunset pics, but it had been raining on and off all day and there wasn't much of one. So, I went up on Wednesday (the 23rd) instead  which had been a brighter day. Although I like go on the Summer Solstice itself if possible, it was still nice to go around that time.

Here are a couple of photos:

Sunset on Mill Hill, Shoreham-by-sea.

So now it's officially summer! Although on Litha it didn't feel very summery, lol. It was about 13C (55F) and dull weather. Today it's 18C (64F) which I think is about average for June, since it was also that temperature when I wrote last year's Litha post!  According to the Met Office, July is the warmest month in the UK and June is the sunniest.

Back in May in wrote in the Beltane post that it had been quite a cold spring. We did have some hot weather in late May and early June, but then it went colder again. A heatwave is predicted for July though. Personally, I like hot weather and sunny days but I'm not used to really hot weather (despite living abroad when I was young!). So consistent, warmer days with lots of sun are best for me, but not where it's uncomfortably hot, lol.

This time last year we'd been in lockdown for several months but restrictions were easing slightly. It's strange to look back on it. It was nice to go to my favourite hill again, I couldn't last year because of family car problems and lockdown restrictions. Right now, the end of our 3rd lockdown in England has been pushed back to July.

Hopefully this summer will be better than last year's! The next sabbat will be Lammas (my fave apart from Samhain!) in late July/early August. I plan to do some kind of celebration post, probably a round-up one. Also look out for my spring-summer update soon. :) 

 

Hope you had a good Litha. Happy Summer! (Or I hope you had a good Yule and Happy Winter!) :)  

 

P.S. For some summer inspiration check out these posts:

Celebrating Litha and Summer: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2018/06/celebrating-litha-summer.html

 Litha + Summer Inspiration: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2020/06/litha-summer-inspiration.html

 

Or if it's winter for you, you might like these posts:

 Winter Round-up + Inspiration: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2018/12/winter-round-up-inspiration.html

More Winter Inspiration + Winter Tag: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2019/12/more-winter-inspiration-winter-tag.html