Musings: At the Edge of Darkness

According to the Old Farmer’s Almanac, the sun will set here today at 4:08 p.m., but from our cabin looking west it slowly dropped behind the lower Presidential ridge at exactly 3:35 p.m., still midafternoon. The twilight, thankfully, lingers for a time, but the timer lights soon click on and the dogs begin to angle for their dinner, an hour too soon.

For the next week or so it stays about this way until the low ebb of the Solstice when the sun lingers for a time, having drifted as far south as it has ever gone. On the 21st of December, we experience the longest night and shortest day of the year, though in fact the daylight of the week before, and the week after, are about the same. It is a time of deepening cold and early darkness that even after a lifetime, still surprises.