Darkness Settles In...Only 5 Hours of Daylight

Livin' 62 degrees north of the equator means that November and December brings with it the darkness of winter. Everyday we lose a few more minutes of daylight and this nifty little table (from Gaisma) updates everyday with the exact sunrise/sunset times. I like to check this chart everyday and then give myself a pat on the back for surviving another day of darkness. Not only is the majority of our days dark, they are grey without sunlight. We are going on 10 days without sunlight (But, who is counting? I am!) On the bright (and sunny) side, I think we are still reveling in the novelty of dark days. Yes, the lack of daylight darkens the mood a little, but it is also a little exciting. Darkness at 2:30 p.m.??? Really? That is just crazy and different. You begin to feel like you need to eat dinner at 4 p.m. and sleep well past the 9 a.m. hour. So, we are popping vitamin D, Omega-3, and B-12 pills like candy and the sun lamp is getting a lot of action these days.

Charlie seems to be coping with the darkness a little better than I am; I feel like I need to be moving all of the time because if I stop and become sedentary the darkness may suck me into winter bear mode: hibernation. Plus, I get these waves of tiredness throughout the day, especially at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. 


Is there light at the end of the tunnel? Yes...winter solstice! The solstice is December 22 which marks the shortest day of daylight...9:44 a.m. sunrise and 2:47 p.m. sunset. It also means that after the 22nd we begin gaining minutes of daylight. YES! You have to remember that the last time I lived in Finland, I only experienced the latter of what I just described because I lived here from January to June. Of course I did experience November 2006 in Oslo, but Oslo is just below the 60th Parallel North which means they have a little more light than where we live now.