In Edinburgh the sun rose at 4.27 am and will set at 10.03 pm. Usable daylight will stretch onwards to nearer 11pm.

We call today mid-summer’s day yet, I hate to say it, the weather feels nothing like what most people would think of as summer. That’s quite typical for Scotland. It’s raining and, a few moments ago, the external temperature readout on my car was 13 degrees C.

I’ve just taken a picture of our wind and rain-swept back garden to remind me of mid-summer’s day – you can see here:

I can think of few sillier activities than sunbathing.

The prospect of lying doing nothing during the hours of daylight while the sun burns and dries out my skin to leave me wrinkly and with the possibility of contracting skin cancer is awful.

I can’t help wishing for a sunnier warmer summer though, just so we can get out and about more – particularly in the wilder parts of the highlands – without the continual threats of wind and rain.

I’m looking forward to Alberta where it’s drier and there will be more dry, sunny days to get outside and hike and climb and ski amongst some fantastic scenery.