November 21st 2013

The board above is our planning board in the office. What's coming up on Shared Planet and when. Most importantly though is the bottom item - 34 days to Christmas today. And even more important than that, today is 1 month from the Shortest Day on December 21st, which actually this year is a sensible time to celebrate, 17.11 hours GMT. Much as I love the dark winter nights and being indoors, candles on and excluding myself from the ever harshening elements, I long for the days to begin lengthening and therefore the Winter Solstice is the most important day in my life. From then on we have 6 months of increasing daylength and I feel my energy levels increasing. I don't mind the temperature being cold, as long as it is getting lighter. Before then though we have to suffer the "Dark Days Before Christmas". I used to think this was a fantasy of my mother, someone of Scandinavian origin who has a melancholy at times. But no it is true. Today in Bristol where I'm writing this sunrise is 07.38hrs and sunset 16.14 hrs. Next Thursday 07.49 hrs and 16.08 hrs over 15 minutes less sunlight (although twilight is longer) and by the Winter Solstice it will be 08.13hrs and 16.03 hrs a half hour less in the morning and 10 minutes less in the evening, the best part of 45 minutes.

The odd thing about the Solstice which I'll come back to on the 21st of December is that from early December the sunset time hovers around 16.05 +/- 3 minutes for the entire month, yet after the Solstice the time of the sunrise becomes slightly later by another 3 minutes to reach a lateness of 08.16am on December 28th which is maintained until January 4th when the sunrise slowly starts to get earlier at 08.15. Sunset however on the 4th January is 4.15pm, 10 minutes later. This is why after Christmas the nights seem a little lighter for just a fraction longer than of late, but the mornings still dark. It takes until the 11th of January for the daylength to equal that of December 1st, 8 hours and 12 minutes. The dark days before Christmas indeed.