Yesterday being just before the summer solstice, and the weather forecast being for sun all day, I took the opportunity to install the stone posts we had prepared to be the markers for the hours of the day around the Fleming College Sundial we built last year in Peterborough Ontario.
I staked where the shadow of the gnomon was at every hour, using my trusty iPhone, and then dug a two foot deep hole at each spot. Marking the hours around a sundial takes a while. You just have to put in the time.
It was hard digging too. It seemed every hole I dug around the clock had at least one buried rock stubbornly resisting my efforts to shovel a deep perfect sized hole. The new 'hour markers' all had roman numerals inscribed on the top of the posts. At the end of the day I literally put in eleven 'hours'.
The garden's position shown here, just northeast of the actual sundial (starting at about eight o'clock ) made it impossible to set in any markers for the last three hours of daylight.
The flower garden in effect relieved me having to dig any more.
Not that I minded how long it took, but someone else looking to quit earlier, and finally coming round to the garden border, might have thought to themselves... "There just weren't enough flowers in the day"
