The phrase "The sun is over the yardarm" invokes imbibing of drink and the enjoyment of life after work is done. Traditionally it means 5:00 has rung, and it's time for happy hour and that first drink of the day - and a happy hour it is. However, the real origins of the phrase refer to a literal ship's yardarm, as the sun passes over it - not at 5 pm but at 11 am:
"SUN IS OVER THE YARDARM - (time for happy hour to begin). This expression is thought to have its origins in an officers' custom aboard ships sailing in the north Atlantic. In those latitudes, the sun would rise above the upper yards - the horizontal spars mounted on the masts, from which squaresails were hung - around 11 a.m. Since this coincided with the forenoon 'stand easy,' officers would take advantage of the break to go below for their first tot of spirits for the day. The expression washed ashore where the sun appears over the figurative yardarm a bit later in the day, generally after 5 p.m., and the end of the workday" (http://phrases.org.uk).The phrase has early literary references as well; the first volume of Life, from the issue of May 31, 1883, uses it, and across the pond, Rudyard Kipling's "From Sea to Sea" (1899) uses it - both in references to drinking.
However, if you're ashore instead of afloat, early evening or quitting time is the usual time to sit down and partake of the pleasures of food and wine (and more)...
Here we will talk about these gifts of life that come from the earth and ground us in the earth; food and drink and more - from all sides, angles, points of view: creation and craft, appreciation and enjoyment, meaning and value, benefits and healing, and all of it, part of that for which we live.
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