At 3.45 am, just 10 minutes ago, I was lying in bed, unable to sleep. So I listened and instead of the silence of the night or cars passing or a train in the distance I heard birds. The dawn chorus. In just 7 days it will be MidSummer's Day, the longest day of the year. And in England this means for a few short weks we have just a few hours each night of darkness after the twilight and before the dawn. And the birds sing. Many have come to England in the Spring after spending the Winter in foreign parts, like South Africa. They will stay until the Autumn when they will go again, to return next year.
Just another element of life and Nature that brings hope. Especially in the middle of the night when one can't sleep and your thoughts dwell on disasters that will probably never happen.
7 comments:
Your comment about having only a few hours of darkness echoed a comment made on BBC, the other night. I had intended to look up the difference in latitude between London and Wichita, but had not. Just now did that. Egad! On June 22, sunrise is at 0445 in London and sunset is at 2122 (local time--GMT). On June 22, sunrise is at 0608 in Wichita and sunset is at 2055 (local time--GMT-5 hours).
I feel cheated that you receive 1 hour 52 minutes more sunlight than we do. Of course, with the type of weather that we have in the summer, that would normally mean that we bake a couple more hours each day! Hmmm...I'm thinking that on December 21, it is you who get cheated of the sunlight. I grew accustomed to a lot of sun while living in Albuquerque (not because of the latitude, but because of the altitude and lack of cloud cover). Increased sunlight does wonders for my energy level!
Cop Car
CopCar,
It's amazing how you take things for granted and think that they are true everywhere. Yes, our days are much longer in the Summer than they are in Winter. And it never occurred to me that you and Buffy don't experience the same phenomenen to the same extent that we do. Days are long for us this time of the year (and I wasn't exaggerating when I said that the birds were singing away before 4.00 am and it wasn't as dark as it was at midnight). And those who work in Winter do not see any daylight before they leave home for work, or when they return home from work.
I wouldn't like to say though that we get more sunshine than you get. We've had very heavy thunderstorms and heavy rain over the last few days and more expected. There has been a lot of flooding over here. Summer itself is hot (but not as hot as you are used to) and can be very dry. Horrible to work in - but fortunately that's something I don't have to worry about now (grin).
Oh, and Yes. SAD is quite a common problem over here in Winter. Many suffer from lack of sunlight, or even natural light in Winter. Do I assume from your comments that it's not so common in the US?
The US is vast enough that climates vary widely, as does the incidence of SAD. In Alaska and the state of Washington, particularly, SAD is an issue. Not so much here in the plains states. I have just returned from spending 4 days in Missouri. While I was gone, HH tells me that we received another 2.5" of rain one day. The week before that, we received over 3". We are ahead of normal for the year, by several inches. Too bad Buffy hasn't had some of our rain!
CC
P.S. During summer, our birds start singing around 4:00 AM (local), too--first the (American) robins, then the northern cardinals, then the Carolina wrens...etc. I love lying abed to listen to our robins. They are thrushes and quite lyrical.
CC
Last evening, I read in one of the newspapers that had accumulated in my absence, that we are 18" ahead in our annual precipitation. Our woods is beginning to resemble a rain forest and the weed patches are far ahead of me, now.
CC
Yes, the weather is weird. In early Spring I was watering the garden regularly, as it was so warm and dry. And now this is the wettest June in recorded history and everything is growing madly. I've not been able to get outside to the garden not only for the obvious reason but also because it's been so wet every day since the op. And its all growing madly. I am trying to ignore the weeds while noticing they way all the flowers and shrubs I nurtured earlier in the year are now flowering and so colourful.
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