Counting Down

The days are getting shorter and shorter as we move towards the Winter Solstice. It's only a matter of one or two minutes shorter each day and it happens every year. Don't get me wrong, I love the long days in the summer and this is the price we have to pay for living north of the 49 th parallel, but getting dark at around 4 pm seems a tad early to me and I know the days are even shorter further north.

The Solstice will occur at 05:30 (or 5:30am) Universal Time (UT) on December 22, 2011 at the longitude of Greenwich, England. It is known as the winter solstice in the northern hemisphere and the summer solstice in the southern hemisphere due to the seasonal differences. The date of the solstice varies from December 20 to December 23 depending the year in the Gregorian calendar.

Because Earth doesn’t orbit upright, but is instead tilted on its axis by 23-and-a-half degrees, Earth’s northern and southern hemispheres trade places in receiving the sun’s light and warmth most directly. That’s what causes winter and summer.

At the December solstice, Earth is positioned in its orbit so that the sun stays 23-and-a-half degrees below the north pole horizon on the day of the December solstice. As seen from 23-and-a-half degrees south of the equator, at the imaginary line encircling the globe known as the Tropic of Capricorn, the sun shines directly overhead at noon. This is as far south as the sun ever gets. All locations south of the equator have day lengths greater than 12 hours at the December solstice (their summer). Meanwhile, all locations north of the equator have day lengths less than 12 hours (our winter).

The bridge in the park before the sun is fully up

Long shadows at this time of year

So cooler days, long shadows and early sundowns. I find that I have less energy this time of year. On a recent sunny day I went down to the park to see check on the bird and animal residents. Many birds have migrated south for the winter, others like the snow geese winter here and summer in the "land of the northern sun".

The ducks seemed to be dozing, waiting for the sun to shine on their pond.

Then a Mallard duck has a quick bath before getting on with the day.

Then get on with the business of feeding. Here the ducks share a patch of grass with a Northern Red Shafted Flicker.

American Wigeons



Northern Red Shafted Flicker



There are still a few red-winged black birds around the pond, often on or near the rushes. They have such a distinctive song and I often hear them long before I catch sight of one.


Red Winged Black Bird



These crows were picking up and tossing the leaves, I guess in hopes of finding something edible beneath them.


Crow rummaging in the fallen leaves

 

These squirrels were feasting on the remaining berries or seeds in this tree.
 

A pair of squirrels feasting on berries



No sign of the beaver, but they have been busy here recently.

The heron appeared to be just waking from a nap, this one is high in a tree.

Most of these rabbits are feasting on black berry leaves but the black one seems to prefer the grass

Alyssum still flowering in the park

Grackle I think

 This seagull was strutting about and very vocal. Think he wanted his parents to feed him.

There has been quite a variety of funghi this year too, but these and the remaining flowers will soon be gone.

Like the animals and birds, I tend to sleep in a bit, seek shelter in the poor weather and get out whenever the sun shines. I will be glad when the solstice arrives and the days start getting a bit longer again, not long now.

"There is something about winter

which pares things down to their essentials

a bare tree

a black hedge

hold their own stark throne in our hearts."

 Moya Cannon

Here is some beautiful music for a winters day.

Vivaldi - Four Seasons (Winter)

I finished a commission this week and an image for our personal Christmas card. I do a new one every year and then release it onto the website the following year. I'll show you it in a couple of weeks.

Sometimes it is difficult to know when a painting or drawing is finished. That is true of this drawing (graphite and pencil crayon) of a cat I called "Mattie". I recently took it out and reworked it, now maybe it's finished. Honestly sometimes I need someone to physically take the pencil (or brush) out of my hand and say enough, this may be one of those cases:

"Mattie" - graphite and pencil crayon cat

Thanks for stopping by, happy Whimsy Wednesday, until next week.......