Daylength, neighbors think I'm crazy

[digitS']

The neighbors think I'm crazy. Because, I don't keep "regular hours."

We will make that ridiculous change of our clocks in awhile. (It can't come soon enuf; I think they wait until a required number of early morning pedestrian fatalities occur . . . ) Maybe I should have my own clock -- based on "hours from sunrise."

The guy across the road is young, probably not much past 30 but he is absolutely punctual by the clock in his comings and goings. Winter and summer, that big black rig starts up - he spins his 180, and he is off to work, hi ho! His dog in the backyard begins to bark, 3 minutes before he arrives back home in the afternoon , hi ho.

Me? In mid-summer, I head off before he makes it out the door and, often, return long after he has popped the lid on his 1st can of Bud. These days, it's different.

Sunrise, sunset
Sunrise, sunset
Swiftly flow the days

We have just dropped below 11 hours of sunlight here. It happens so quickly that even after over 40 years living at this latitude, I have trouble adjusting. Right now, it is no surprise that after so many hours of dark skies and twinkling stars, frost covers the lawn. But a week ago, and despite unseasonably warm weather, daylength was putting the brakes on plant growth.

I mean, my garden gets right at 16 hours of sunshine on the summer solstice. Of course, soon it will get 16 hours of darkness.

Here is a webpage set up by a guy with a lot of talent . You can find all the numbers here about your sunrise, sunset, daylength - just find your location and allow your cursor to hover over the graph: http://ptaff.ca/soleil/?lang=en_CA

You can also look at other locations to compare. Take Barrow, Alaska, for instance . . !! Like to have a 1 minute day on November 18th . . . and then 2 months of darkness?? Yikes!

Steve :coolsun

Sunrise, sunset
Sunrise, sunset
Swiftly flow the days
Seedlings turn overnight to sunflowers
Blossoming even as we gaze

Sunrise, sunset
Sunrise, sunset
Swiftly fly the years
One season following another
Laden with happiness and tears

 

[Northernrose]

Beautiful poem I agree with you on the almost silly "modern human's" need for exact time, but our world runs by it now. It is nice to have the freedom to wake, rise, eat and sleep by just the natural rotation of the earth and seasons.

Too bad my kids are now approching school age. Soon I'll be like all the other "soccer moms" rushing my kids to school, from school, to this appointment, and that event forever under the pressure of the dreaded clock.

Last night me and my two kids (2-1/2, 4-1/2) stayed up late playing we went outside in the dark and caught (and released) toads, tree frogs and crickets and watched the stars. This morning we slept in until the sun was shining in our eyes (both kids snuck into my bed sometime in the night LOL). I love waking up naturally and not to the wail of an alarm clock. But, oh so soon I will have to resign myself to setting the alarm for before the sun rises just to get ready for school with fewer and fewer cuddly mornings with my babies.

Trisha

 

[digitS']

Trisha, I live only about 2 blocks distance from an elementary school. I don't want you ending up like some of those drivers. Remember that altho' you may be on a mission, so is everybody else. I swear, young parents carting their kids to and fro, take some of the craziest risks!!

I rise before the sun throughout the year. It's gotten darn easy to sleep in (by the clock), as I did this morning, and still get up before sunrise.

There are tasks that get caught within the confines of daylight and darkness and it gets more so. Fortunately . . . snow will soon cover the frozen ground. Ha !

It hasn't always been like this for me. When I go back to the central valley of California, I have this strange sense of home. It seems like I'm usually there in late autumn but I haven't been able to "unbundle" from my flannel cocoon far enuf to make the trip in a number of years.

Tevye the milkman sings the song in Fiddler on the Roof. I feel more and more like Tevye as I and the year grow older.

Steve

 

[lesa]

Sunrise, sunset indeed. Such a lovely tune (I'll be singing that in my mind for the next 2 days- thanks, Steve!) The shorter days are very hard on me. I get so much accomplished in those long days of summer- and then...nothing!
Valerian root is the only thing that saves me. If I don't take them before bed, I feel pretty suicidal.
I often wonder what my mood would be if I lived in a sunnier part of the world. Maybe I couldn't really keep up that summer pace, year round. Maybe, I need the winter to be ready for spring, just like the soil?? Not likely that I will ever find out...but I do often wonder.
I just feel so alive when the sun is shining...

 

[Northernrose]

Trisha, I live only about 2 blocks distance from an elementary school. I don't want you ending up like some of those drivers. Remember that altho' you may be on a mission, so is everybody else. I swear, young parents carting their kids to and fro, take some of the craziest risks!!

Steve

Oh, I so know what you mean about the crazy drivers. The elementary school where my kids will be going to is about 8 miles from us. But, I have driven right by it at 8am and 3pm a few times. Utter chaos. Since it is a "country" school lots of parents drop their kids off because they are coming from miles around.

Trisha

 

[jojo54]

Thanks for the neat website link!

I too hate this clock changing stuff. I grew up in Saskatchewan where we don't change the clocks.

Moving to the mountains was a big change for daylength. On the prairies the days of summer seem to last forever. Here, is may be light but you don't see the sun rise over the mountain until much later and it disappears sooner too. Now the sun doesn't peak over the mountain until after 9 and is gone by 6. You still have light but no sun.

 

[wifezilla]

I have a 14,000 ft pile of rock in my back yard (Pikes Peak) that makes sunset like flipping off a light switch. No long lingering twilight. Just POOF! "Crappola! Where did the light go?" : sigh :

 

[digitS']

I have some of the same experience with a horizon that wasn't properly ironed out.

Wasn't it Ridgerunner who said that he onced lived so far back in a hollow that they had to "pump" sunlight in?

Anywhere there are mountains, it is possible to get between them. Still, Colorado is so vertical!

S'

 

[RickF]

I have a 14,000 ft pile of rock in my back yard (Pikes Peak) that makes sunset like flipping off a light switch. No long lingering twilight. Just POOF! "Crappola! Where did the light go?" : sigh :