Winter Solstice or What Happened To The Sun?

Just like Frazz (shown above), our Winter Solstice seemed to be over and done with in no time flat! Here, just four miles south of 55 degrees North latitude, we had the shortest day I have ever experienced! The sun rose just before 8:30 am . . . I think; it was cloudy. Big surprise! And it set at 3:40 pm in the afternoon. Now those are the official times. In real life, it was nearer to 9 am and 3 pm. The 3 pm I am more certain of because it had cleared off by that time of day and I know that my wife walked home from her job (only a mile away) in the dark. Normally, she would have been getting off from work about that time, but yesterday, she was delayed for a while before coming home and it was completely dark by the time she walked home. That's just way too early for it to get dark!!!

It's dark when we get up and it's dark long before we have our evening meal, usually between 5 pm and 6 pm. No wonder I'm depressed. LOL Actually, there are a lot of people up here in northern England who suffer from SADS (Seasonal Affective Depression Syndrome). I imagine it's a lot worse up along the northern reaches of Scotland. And I don't want to even imagine what it's like up in the Shetland or Orkney Islands. Can you imagine what it must have been like back in the Middle Ages, or during the Celtic Ages, when they didn't have much in the way of artificial light, and let's not even talk about how they kept warm on those really, really long winter nights.

No matter how long I live here, I don't think I'll ever get used to it getting dark so awfully early in the afternoon. Nor do I think I'll ever get used to the sight of the sun getting no higher above the horizon than an hour's height in the sky before it starts to head back down toward the horizon. I often wonder what the Romans, who grew up down on the Mediterranean, thought of the strange winters and the really long winter nights as they patrolled Hadrian's Wall.