The Longest Day

Yesterday was the perfect day to head to the courtyard and have the summer solstice ceremony before dinner, with warm sun all day. The wind made an appearance as well, as is typical in the city, and we had some other visitors too: while people were coming up from the zendo I could hear some low flying helicopters, and I was worried we were all going to be drowned out, but fortuitously they seemed to find somewhere else to hover until we were taking everything down at the end, when they became very audible again. And during the offering of poems and song, a little thrush-sized bird (sorry not to be able to identify it, perhaps someone else knows) landed in the maple tree over my head, and then made for the fountain for a quick bath, whereupon it looked round to see a circle of people around it, and flew off again, perhaps feeling a little self-conscious.
I was down in the courtyard earlier in the afternoon to take pictures of the various flowers in bloom:

Zen Center is also full of colour out front, with our rainbow flag flying over the front steps. I was thinking about reproducing my previous picture, but ended up with some variations on the theme instead.