Missing/Enjoying: Daylight...

This morning, like most mornings for the last two weeks, sunlight streamed in our living room window, hitting the wall above our dining table from 7:50 am to 8:40 am or thereabouts - our living room window faces east, and is 90 degrees to the right of our dining table. The sun rises before 8 am and is now sets closer to 5:30 pm than it has for, what feels like, a very long time.

I cannot tell you how much of a difference this makes to our routine and mindset. December was a bit of a drag, with the sun rising around 8 am and setting around 4:30 pm. October was a bit the same, until daylight savings were removed. March will probably be a drag too, once daylight savings return. It seems to take us a few weeks to get our heads around the change, but I guess we could just set an alarm...

Coming from Queensland, Australia, it's been a little hard getting used to the changes in daylight over the last 10 months. In Queensland there is no daylight savings, there is basically no twilight, and only an hour or two seasonal change in daylight hours throughout the year - perks of being closer to the equator perhaps.

In a way, I miss the longer days of Queenslands' winter, longer compared to Kansas winter, but there was something about the long summer twilight: people would go out after dinner and bike ride or swim from 8-9:30 pm, making the most of the cooler part of the day. On a few occasions we took Jimmy outside and sat on the grass watching the sun go down and the fireflies light up, and Jimmy would fall asleep in my arms, out for the night. One night we went for a swim after 8 pm, maybe it was closer to 9 pm... either way, it was lovely to swim in the evening, watching fireflies and seeing the stars - Jimmy went to sleep quite easily after that too (unless I'm looking at the whole thing with rose coloured glasses...).

The winter solstice took on special meaning last year, because Michael and I were both over the long nights. And even though it snowed yesterday, and two groundhogs predicted another 6 weeks of winter*, there is no denying that spring is just around the corner, especially when there is sunlight streaming in through the living room window.

*At least two more predicted an early spring, but we're in Kansas, so anything goes! The last week has seen snow and t-shirt weather, with more warm weather and snow on the way...