Dark days
I’m not speaking metaphorically when I say “dark days.” Right now is one of those days of the early early sunsets. To me, sunset is the most important marker rather than the shortest amount of daylight, which can actually involve a slightly later sunset in combination with a later sunrise.
But one of the consolations of the deepest part of winter, the part that comes after the solstice, is that the sunsets start getting later and later.
I just did a YouTube search for winter scenes to post here, and discovered that there’s a load of them that are many hours long and made as relaxation videos to facilitate meditation or sleep. Hmmm. Hibernation, anyone?
Very, very dark…
https://twitter.com/JonathanTurley/status/1202681745038028806
Freakin’ depressing, actually.
(Of course they tell us it’s always darkest before dawn, yadda, yadda, yadda…. Sigh.)
Nice video though…
I’ve always thought that New England should be in the Atlantic time zone. The difference in our sunset and say western Ohio is a bit ridiculous. In summer having the sunrise at 430 am is also crazy.
I love being outside when it’s snowing. Sounds are muted, and everything is peaceful and beautiful.
Until the snow plow arrives, of course.
God bless you and good luck. I moved to Texas last year because I just couldn’t take the early nightfall any longer.
Haha.
Years ago, back when I was doing some training at the plant in Hartford, in April, I think it was, I was dumbfounded at the time it got light … morning, driving without headlamps on a rainy commute, light.
About the same O’clock at which point the eastern horizon brightened in the Lakes States around Father’s Day.
My office is in Saint Cloud, Minnesota, and I live on an old farmstead a little south of there. Some winters, we get two weeks where the high temperature does not get above zero. Saint Cloud does not have a homeless problem. Spring and Fall are gorgeous, and Summer is not oppressive.
One of the pleasant things about the western edge of the northern eastern time zone, is the extended dusk. Even in the late fall.
Not to get too sappy about it, but on occasion, if the weather clears, and if at sunset you are in the right environs with the right, say Tudor or similar domestic style architecture, and fir trees and snow on the ground, you will witness a sky and town-scape scene reminiscent of those 19th century German romantic landscape paintings. It can be downright beautiful. Almost, awe inspiring …
For about 30 minutes.
Nothing wrong with hibernation.
DNW, those are a precious thirty minutes. To seek out those times is a good thing.
It doesn’t seem as if the light level in that video changes at all over 3 hours. That’s kind of disappointing. I like the sound of the brook very much. But it’s probably just a loop.
Twilight and dusk … the finest part of every day.
Sunset is beautiful, when the day departs behind the flamboyant banners of the Sun;
But I prefer the quiet solitude that arrives when the banners, those gorgeous distractions, go unseen,
And the shadow of twilight approaches, to enfold me in the mystery and serenity of dusk.
Some of my New England winter memories are timed with leaving and coming back home in my 20s. HItching to work for first shift, I recall the pink edge of the horizon in a winter sunrise. Hitching back from the library around midnight, the stark beauty of the starlit sky, with occasional clouds, juxtaposed against the snow on the ground, impressed me every time I saw it. One advantage of hitching was that in the process I spent a certain amount of time outside walking- though I didn’t see it that way at the time.
That snowy river video reminds me of the stream – though it was named a river (and apparently wider than the one in the video)- that flowed by my childhood home. It also curved to the left when viewed from our property.
I grew up in Anchorage.
Y’all got nuthin’.
🙂
Forget all the other animated Xmas stories – this is a real tale of redemption for our times:
https://vimeo.com/246983302
Ben David,
I very much enjoyed it. Redemption for our times indeed!
Thanks. 😀
I listened to that Youtube video for about three minutes and now I have to go to the bathroom.
Ran across a blog of a UK guy now living in Sweden in a town about half way up the peninsula. Says the sun rises at 940 am & sets about 220 pm, he posts pictures, hourly ones in fact so you can see the progression, interesting stuff. Says hes gotten used to it.