21 June 2026

 I was mildly curious to know how it would be to walk on Midsummer Common on Midsummer Evening. 

Having spent at least five summer solstices (Midsommar/Juhannus) in Finland, and because I have a daughter born on the summer solstice in the opposite hemisphere (21 December in Cape Town), it feels a significant event to me.

My happiest memories of the summer solstice in Finland are of pootling around aimlessly in an old rowing boat on the completely calm lake at our summer cottage in the woods - very often by myself, but typically with our two dogs in the boat with me - in the seemingly endless summer nights. 

My brother at these times liked to remind me of the wonderful line by Ratty in Wind in the Willows: 'Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats'.

I was thinking about this on Midsummer Common in Cambridge this evening, where on the Cam there was indeed some very English messing about in boats going on -

Though there was no evidence of any nod to the solstice or celebrations. 

Instead, typical English summer scenes - cycling along the towpath -

crowded tables outside the river pubs -

and solitary reading under giant trees -

All very Cambridge, after all.