By Winter solstice has been and the days are now lengthening again. I must confess ( and this blog is meant to convey truthful content and commentary) that I have struggled to adjust to the dark evenings and colder weather. It hasn’t even been very cold, rarely in single figures. Most days a jacket suffices. Neither has it been as dark as a UK winter. Sunset is not before five and is frequently spectacular over St Vincent’s Gulf. On a weekday, I catch the last moments of the sky’s daily light show as I leave work. Then the night falls, quick and intense, and is settled by the time I get home.
It was on my drive home during this transition one evening, that I realised what the problem was. It is winter, but there is no Christmas to offer light and distraction, or to give a shape to the season.
Also I do not yet know what the months mean. I can picture the summer months and have an expectation of what each of them may bring, but I can’t do this for June, July or August. I cannot navigate mentally through to the spring, but I do know that from now on the nights are receding.
Written as day fifteen for Writing 101 on the Daily Post
Dr D in Oz 