Winter Solstice

“When small men
begin to cast big shadows,
the sun is about to set.”

Lin Yutang

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It’s  all uphill from now on, if you live north of the equator…

6 hours and 6 minutes, those were our daylight hours today. I am stranded at home thanks to rain, snow, and temperatures around freezing. The roads have turned into an ice rink, even walking is treacherous. Well, that’s winter. We are prepared and good to go, even if I don’t make it into town until next year. I’ll run out of movies, first.

Lin Yutang was a prolific Chinese writer, translator, and linguist. He also invented a Chinese typewriter and obviously had a good sense of humor.

Winter Solstice

“Is it snowing where you are?

All the world that I see from my tower is draped in white and the flakes are coming down as big as pop-corns.

It’s late afternoon – the sun is just setting behind some colder violet hills, and I am up in my window seat using the last light to write to you.”

Jean Webster

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The sun did rise this morning at 8:56 behind a snowy sky. Not that we have seen a lot of her, lately. It is the beginning and the the end of winter. Starting tomorrow there will be more daylight. We are heading for spring and summer. The colors will be muted for some months to come. But they will return.

In the meantime, we’ll make the best out of it. Reading, writing, working from home. Enjoying breaks in the weather. It is a good time to appreciate what we have.

Hello Winter!

Winter solstice. A special or a day like any other day? On one hand it’s a day like any other day with 24 hours… In the Northern hemisphere it marks the beginning of winter. The sun rises above the horizon for the shortest time of the day, depending on where you live. At our latitude it was 4 hours and some change, except we never saw the sun. It snowed most of the day. Just like many other winter days.

Then again, even without looking at the calendar it was a special day. Unique. Passing, as in you cannot hold on to it.

Looking forward to today.

Ice Flowers