Thursday 21 December 2017

Thankful Thursday

It's Thursday 21 December 2017. As I write this there are only about  96 hours to wake-up time on Christmas morning. Not that I'm celebrating that in particular. I shall doubtless enjoy Christmas Day in good company. Not having drunk alcohol very much in the last four months, and not at all recently, I shall doubtless enjoy a drop of wine during the day. 

However it is today that I am really celebrating. Today is the shortest day of the year: The sun (assuming that it rises at all) will not rise until 0911 and it will set (assuming that it rose anyway) at 1535. That will give Lewis about 6 hours and 24 minutes of what passes for daylight.

From tomorrow the days will get longer. 

It will soon be Spring and then Summer.

In the meantime I shall make the most of winter and the long nights and do 'winter things'.

35 comments:

  1. I can't imagine such short days! Enjoy the solstice and the lengthening daylight.
    I hope your Christmas is lovely and you see some sun

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    1. Well, Kylie, it's 0850 as I write this and the sky is fairly clear of clouds but I can hardly make anything out on the land between here and the sea.

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  2. A good day to be thankful for... today is our 20th Wedding Anniversary and we got married in Scotland.

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    1. Serenata what a remarkable coincidence. Happy (rather belated) anniversary.

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  3. Reminds me of my Dad (who would have been 109 if still with us) who twice a year on the 22nd of June and December would always say how 'the nights are drawing in' or 'the days are getting longer'. I think that I should fix the light onto my dog's lead for our morning walk that currently starts in the dark. I may have left it too late...

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    1. Well, Potty, I'm sure there will be a few more dark morning walks still to come this winter.

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  4. A Happy Winter Solstice to you Graham !

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  5. Wow, that's difficult for me to imagine. We are so used to the sun here that we sort of live our lives regulated by it. Queensland doesn't have Daylight saving time like other parts of Australia. We like our nights to be dark as night time should be and a bit of respite from the heat of the day. I understand your fondness for long hours of daylight in Summer so you can get out and enjoy it but I can't say I love it. Getting all dressed up to go out to dinner at night seems strange if the sun is still shining.

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    1. Helsie when I lived in Napier in New Zealand I got used to the relative stability of the night v day compared with the North of Scotland. Your comment about getting dressed up when the sun was shining being odd made me think. In NZ and here in the summer I 'dress up' in different clothes to the winter and I've never thought about the sun still being up.

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  6. We have had a habit of eating pieces of a pumpkin at the night of the winter solstice. Pumpkin is yellow: the color of the sun.

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    1. That's something I've never come across before Mr Crane

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    2. A belated happy winter solstice to you, Graham.

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  7. Happy Solstice Graymondo!

    "Winter things"? You mean tobogganing and pelting snowballs at schoolgirls?

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    1. YP snow would be lovely sometimes but it is very rare here in any quantity.

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  8. Looking forward with hope and pleasure is the way we should live. You're a good example.

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    1. Thanks Red. I've never really been one for dwelling on the past.

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  9. I am realising, as Winter settles in, that there are many things I like about it. Like so much in life, it is worse in the anticipation than the reality. Every year, I forget. Have a lovely Christmas, even if nearly alcohol free!

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    1. Jenny, I used to get all sorts of stuff done in the house in the winter but now I don't seem to differentiate very much at all. Except, of course, for the garden.

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  10. Like I commented on some other bloggers' posts about the solstice, this year I was really counting the days. Not being able to see much daylight during the week because it is pitch black dark by the time I leave the office gets to me, as does not being out for long walks or even short runs because it is either too cold, too wet, too dark or all of it.
    But winter as such has lost much of its sting for me, strangely enough, since I've started being with O.K. Somehow, winter in his part of the country is more romantic and less bothersome than in the city where I live.

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    1. Meike winter never used to bother me in that I did 'winter things' on winter nights whenI worked (after that I spent my winters in New Zealand) but now I find the morning's rather difficult. In the summer I'm up and about and even in the garden by 0630 but this year I'm finding that I sometimes don't even wake up until after 0730 and often later. Then the days don't seem long enough to get everything done. So roll on the spring and summer!

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  11. Happy Solstice I hope you have a smooth and peaceful year.

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    1. Thanks Adrian. A less eventful year would certainly be welcome.

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  12. My feelings exactly, Graham. I'm always pleased when the shortest day is behind us.

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  13. Just about the same as here - just checked online and here, presumably, the sun got up at 8:54 and went to bed at 15:25. I can't personally vouch for every minute though, as it stayed hidden by fog and clouds most of the day!

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    1. Monica, we've had a melange of weather this last week: beautiful sun and then gales and rain. I've seen some fabulous sunrise and sunset pictures but this time of year is the only time when the sunrise and sunset are both hidden from any of my windows so I have to go out to see them (which means I have to know about them first).

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  14. I really like the winter solstice - a good chance to enjoy the time of year.

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    1. Well, Amy, I can't really say that I enjoy it if I'm honest.

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  15. It's nice to have something to look forward to - longer days! Even here in South Europe it gets so dark quickly. Not nice :D

    Mersad
    Mersad Donko Photography

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    1. Mersad, I got used to the quite sudden change from day to night in certain parts of the world but here it's always very gradual.

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  16. OMG how can anyone live in those latitudes in winter. Its a shame you can't go to NZ for the winter any more. Hope you are keeping as well as possible.

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    1. Diane, for the first thirty years living here I just got used to it. It's only since my decade of being in NZ during the Scottish winter that I've found it rather difficult. But, hey, I'm just glad that I don't live up near the Arctic Circle!

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