It's 17.40 Central European Time and if I were just arriving home I would still have one minute to unlock the front door without aiming the car headlights at the steps. Five weeks after the Winter Solstice is a heady time of year because we can really see a meaningful difference in the length of the days.
No matter how cold or wet or winter-gloomy the weather might be at this time of year, just having that little extra bit of daylight at our disposal is as cheerful as a bouquet of hothouse iris and as optimistic as an ad for outdoor furniture.
There are still an awful lot of outdoor chores to be performed before the trees begin to bud in March, but now we can actually see what we're doing between 07.00 and 17.30. In the countryside, the possibility of starting and finishing a weekend project on the same day raises our spirits. We're felling trees for next year's firewood, pruning the olive trees and sharpening our scythes and scissors. Believe it or not, it's almost time to plant the annual flower seeds we've coddled since October and settle the flats on a sunny window sill. February is exciting and March is thrilling, but even the end of January is just fine with us.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
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1 comment:
You're right about the light. We're not even halfway through our winter exile in Perugia but we miss our home. Oh well, you went through about a decade of winter exile before renouncing it. I think this is a one time deal for us.
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