Today is one of the more notable days of the year for us northerners. It's the shortest day of the year! Winter solstice! It's the first day of winter! Days start getting longer after this!
Here the sun rose at 8:42 this morning and set at 16:25 this afternoon. This gives us 7 hours and 43 minutes of the sun being up. We had a clear frosty day. We had a high of minus 16 C( plus 3 F) and now at 8:30 it's minus 20 C(minus 5 F).
Most years I have watched very carefully as the days shortened and darkened. I looked at each day's sunrise and sunset. The shorter days caused me some tension. I did look forward to the shortest day as I knew things would get better. This year , all of a sudden it's the first day of winter and I'm surprised! I have not been following with dread the increasing darkness.
Many cultures have celebrations to mark the winter solstice. Now the day passes quietly.
So welcome to longer sunny days!
Happy Winter and Merry Christmas Red.
ReplyDeleteall the very best in the New Year.
Thank you! I hope you have a good Christmas.
DeleteI know the feeling. I'm glad the days are going to lengthen again too. I love knowing that we're over the hump. Though I always feel a bit of disappointment on June 21 that we've already passed the longest day and that the summer has just begun. Still I look forward to the longer days ahead.
ReplyDeleteWe can never beat this thing. I guess we'll have to live in the tropics.
DeleteAs you celebrated the winter solstice, we celebrated the summer one - it is such a strange time of year for us - as the heat will continue for a very long time still, and it almost passes by unnoticed. Wishing you a Merry Christmas and longer days. From Down Under.
ReplyDeleteThis has always been a hard thing to get my head around. Someday I'm going to have to visit south of the equator.
DeleteRed, bugger the christians and there hijacking of Christmas. We need a gig bonfire and a night of light.
ReplyDeleteI have had trouble getting posts to link. Try changing the post title. That seems to work. If not then I suspect accepting adverts would be equally efficacious.
I t seems the feed system is at fault. So much of it is linked and updated and sometimes stuff doesn't work. I've been told I can't do anything from this end.
DeleteI am glad you remind me to keep coming over here to check on you. I removed your blog from my list, hoping I'd be able to add you again, but it still won't add you. Keep commenting on my blog and I'll keep visiting! :-)
ReplyDeleteIt seems that the feed problem is a system problem. Many bloggers are having similar problems. thanks for sticking with me. It's much appreciated.
Deletehooray for more sunlight! :)
ReplyDeleteAt this time of year it comes back very slowly. It really starts to pick up in FEb. - Mar.
DeleteMerry Christmas from the Netherlands Red! ;-)
ReplyDeletedzjiedzjee.blogspot.com
Thank you. Have good
DeleteChristmas over there.
I'm ready for it to warm up some. But the icy photos have been fabulous!
ReplyDeleteIt's got to warm up there for any improvement to take place.
DeleteIt will be nice to eventually have more light in the morning. But I'm still ready for more winter weather.
ReplyDeleteI hope you have a peaceful and joyful holiday, Red!!
Yes, if it instantly turned to summer we would feel ripped off.
DeleteThanks, and I hope you have a good Christmas.
Wow, that is one late sunrise! You can tell you are much farther north than we are!!
ReplyDeleteYes, we get a lot of work done before the sun appears!
DeleteOMG - those temperatures! Brrrrrrrrrrr!
ReplyDeleteI'll take the Australian version of Christmas, beach, outdoor, fish dishes, salads and BBQ's. Seems fish is triumphing here from reports - oysters, prawns etc selling like holy hell at the major fish markets in the cities and in the country at supermarkets. Prices, best not mentioned!
Seems that the whole of Australia ( I hate this OZ stuff) will have good weather - about 25c to maybe 30c - appears will be the norm - some areas will get rain. The rural areas will count that as a Christmas gift.
Still strange weather here in Brisbane - hot days and cool nights - wonders never cease with the climate.
Tennis starts on the 28th here for the 2014 year - we start early - no one complains as yet. In Perth on that date in the Hopman Cup, your excellent Canadian combination of
Milos Raonic and the very attractive Eugenie Bouchard play Australia. Hmmmm! Should be interesting, but as much as it hurts, I think Canada has the edge.
Have a great, if not very cold, Christmas.
Cheers
Colin (Brisbane. Australia)
Cold -hot? It's all what you make of it.
DeleteOur (southern hemisphere) days will now start to get shorter but at least when I get back to Scotland in May the days will be very long and, at midsummer, the nights will be almost non-existent on Lewis.
ReplyDeleteYou play both ends against the middle. There has to be a name for guys like you who move to summer.
DeleteYIPPPEEEEE!!!! :)
ReplyDeleteThanks!
DeleteMerry Christmas Red! I hope you have a wonderful day:)
ReplyDeleteIt was a cold one today. And, yes. That's what I wondered. Dump truck on the road at 3 a.m.?
ReplyDeleteCheers from Cottage Country Ontario , ON, Canada!
You are about due for some warm weather so that some of the ice drops off the trees.
DeleteYou wrote that your posts have been missing he feed? Is this your most recetn? I know that they have fallen off my blog role.and I am glad that you are still writing!
ReplyDeleteThis was the last post and I've just finished writing a new post a few minutes ago.
DeleteJust an FYI - your blog is now back on my blogger! The past month of them flooded me! ha ha ha ha ha! :)
ReplyDeleteYou have no idea how good it is to hear you say this!
DeleteYour blog is now back on my Blogger dashboard too. Long may it stay that way!
ReplyDeleteYes, Red, I was finally able to sign up for you again! And read all the ones I missed. :-)
ReplyDeleteIt's really good to hear that you're picking me up again.
ReplyDelete