21st December . . .

. . . and a happy Midwinter's Day to all our readers. (North of the Tropic of Cancer, that is)

I'm looking forward to the days getting longer. Maybe when daylight savings hits, I'll try biking to work. I won't, but it's nice to think that I will.

I have been cycling all the time, except for 28th November when all the roads were too icy, and 20th December when I had to go out of town.

The evenings don't get longer for about two weeks; it has to do with the orbit of the earth, so sunrise gets earlier (in the north) and sunset doesn't get later. The earth is closest to the sun, I think on 3rd January, after which sunset starts to become later.

I am pleased to see the Moose celebrating the beginning of winter. Most of Britain has looked like that for the last four weeks.

Campbell Ritchie wrote:I have been cycling all the time, except for 28th November when all the roads were too icy, and 20th December when I had to go out of town.

Wow! If there were ice on the roads, I wouldn't even get out of bed, much less try to attempt them on a bicycle. Here:

You've earned it!

Campbell Ritchie wrote:
The evenings don't get longer for about two weeks; it has to do with the orbit of the earth, so sunrise gets earlier (in the north) and sunset doesn't get later. The earth is closest to the sun, I think on 3rd January, after which sunset starts to become later.

Hmm, interesting. According to here, it's actually the opposite, for San Diego at least. Sunset was the earliest in late November and early December, and has been getting later since then. Well, I don't care. We passed the solstice, so the days are getting longer. If earth, with its erratic eccentricity, doesn't agree with that, that's not my problem.

I'm suspicious of the "closest to the sun" logic

And best wishes for Isaac Newton's birthday (coming up in just a couple of days).