It happens twice a year – regular as clockwork. Well,
actually, it IS clockwork!
Since the first day of summer, the sun starts its slow trip
back to the south. At the height of summer, it rises far up into the
north-east, makes its way to just a little south of us at noon, and then the
slow descent to set in the far north-west. During a couple of weeks in June,
you can actually see it sneak across the north just below the horizon to come
back up in the east. At the summer solstice, we get about 16 hours and 38
minutes of daylight.
The avenues in our city run directly east-west, while the
streets run north-south generally. At this time of year, and earlier in the
spring as well, the sun rises directly in the east along the avenue. When I am
walking to work in the morning, the sun is very low in the east and directly in
my eyes. Everything in front of you is in dark silhouette; there is no colour!
It makes driving very difficult. Walking is bad enough!
In spring, this occurred on April 9 or 10 this year. These
are the only two times in the year that the shadows of the street signs and
trees on the avenue are all parallel to the curbs. It’s a curious phenomenon.
I’m sure that most people don’t even notice it at all, but I find it pleasingly
comforting in some strange way that we can always depend on the sun appearing
in the exact same spot year after year after year. I seem to like everything to
line up in some way, for it all to be in the right place.
There is little in our world these days that can be said to
be dependable like this. It seems everything and everyone is in a state of
flux, very changeable. The only rule to follow is: “it depends”. There are too
many variables in play to be able to make any kind of prediction with any
reliability. We shall see what we shall see.
There is a change in the air already. I can feel a chill in
the shadows, and in the air at night. The sun is still warm, but not with the
burning intensity of mid-summer. I know fall is pushing its way in, and winter
is not long after. This is my least favourite time of year. I have a feeling of
dread, of foreboding, and of general dismay. I’ve always gone into a slight depression
at this time of year for as long as I can remember. But being aware it is
happening helps in the struggle to get through it.
I am working on a colourful afghan in fall colours! It has brown,
rust and orange, so at least that is trying to put some brightness into my
life. The pattern is very plain and oh-so boring to do, but I keep on plodding.
Of course, it’s not a small item, so has been taking a long time to do, and I’m
not sure of the final size. I was planning on working until I run out of yarn, but
it just seems to go on and on and on! I keep thinking of doing a border all the
way around it, and I may do that as well; that is still in the planning stages.
It depends (see, I told you!) on how much yarn I have left when I finally
determine to terminate this whole process. More about that later.
The Fall Equinox is in another two weeks, so enjoy the last
few days of summer that you can. We’ve had just a hint of frost this past week,
and this weekend, we are forecast to reach a high of +29!! (That is in Celsius,
of course – I don’t know what that would be in American) We’ve only had a
couple of days of +30 this summer as it is. As I said, everything is quite
unpredictable. Very.
