Oh, the sun has been fickle this week. Hiding in fog banks in the morning, making for a dreary start to the day…
Afternoons have been either scorchingly hot with not a cloud in the sky or so overcast that the sun seems like a distant memory.
As the sun sinks down towards the horizon, the sky and lake blues slowly shift to pinks, then deeper purples and inky blues before the last of the light fades. The days are shorter, the nights longer, signaling the coming winter solstice. Soon enough, we’ll be in the thick of winter darkness, and yet, there is cause for rejoicing.
For many years, one of my Boston friends has faithfully posted to our online running group on December 8th about that day being the earliest sunset of the year (northern hemisphere dwellers only). It always makes me smile to hear from him and to know that the sun will stay up just a little bit longer every winter day henceforth. As he says in the subject line of the email, “Rejoice, the light returns!” I’ve got the photo (above) to prove I was definitely rejoicing on December 8th this year.
One result of the wintertime swing in relative solar time is that although, as everyone knows, December 21 (approximately) is the shortest day of the year, the day of the latest sunrise is almost two weeks later, on January 4. And, most important, the earliest sunset occurs on December 8! Amazingly, the sunset actually begins, ever so slowly, to become later after early December.
Doug Dodds
Oh, I hadn’t realized that connection, thanks for sharing it. I’m feeling spoiled having this view from my front door for a week or so, and I’m definitely going to miss it when I go.
Lovely, moody pics!
How cool that’s your birthday! And you are now the third person I know born on that very cool date 🙂
Interesting but of important trivia discerning the details of light and it’s shifting. The date caught my eye as it is my birth date and now, thanks to this information, I can tag that day as part of the cycle of light. Though the day is clipped by it’s earliest sunset, it can be celebrated that nights will be pushed back by the days thereafter…
I love those pictures showing the exact same place at different moments in the day and through the seasons, like the opening scenes of the movie Dr Zhivago.