It’s that time of the year when daylight comes after 9am and the moon and the sun are both visible in the sky, looking large and luminous, in this morning period.
I’m not quite sure how I feel about this time of the year in my region of Scotland. In previous years I’ve dreaded it, because the storms and gales have been seemingly never-ending and the patches of sunlight seemed to disappear all too quickly, bringing the day to an abrupt close at 3 or 4pm. It’s at this time of the year that I struggle to get out of bed at 7:30am (despite being happy to get up with the sun at 5am during the summer) and I battle with my mind at 4pm to convince myself it’s nowhere near bedtime.
Just a few weeks ago, however, we had the winter solstice. I’d never paid much attention to any of the solstices previously, but now I look forward to this particular day in December just before Christmas. It’s the day when the days start to get longer! Sure, it only increases by approximately 2 minutes a day, but hey – I’ll take it! It means that within a month the evenings should stretch by an hour. So here we are, mid-January, and I’m impatiently waiting for the stormy days to break for a little while so there can be a good couple of clear days, just so I can enjoy a longer evening!
Also at this time, starting right on cue, is the annual frantic decision making of what seeds to plant for this year’s gardening activities. Last year I left it a bit too late – there was a lot going on and I talked myself into thinking that starting seeds at the beginning of February would be okay. This year I’m going to get my skates on and plunge forward! Decisions, here I come.
I won’t lie. Sometimes it can be hard to think about which seeds to germinate and how to plan what you want your garden to look like in the various seasons when the days are dark, somewhat stormy and definitely cold. But if my chrysanthemums can bloom in November (and look happy about it) I can definitely get cracking on my garden in the throes of winter!
Do you remember what happened to my fluffy chrysanthemum that I was so looking forward to seeing in full bloom? We had a gale. Sigh. It was blown down my steps, coming to rest almost fully upside-down, where it stayed until discovered after the gale had passed some days later. Here are some pictures of its pure bravery in getting the show on the road, before the temperatures plummeted and winter arrived in all its halting glory.
