Yesterday, one of the customers told me the fact I have used in the title. It makes the year seem rather short.
This, in turn, lead me to calculate the length of time before Spring starts. Just 56 days. That, of course, is only half the story. Meteorological Spring may start on 1st March according to the scientists, but the weather doesn’t always agree.
My parents were married at the end of March and, as they told me for 60 years, it snowed.
One thing you can rely on is the daylength. It’s already feeling longer than it did (and it is actually ten minutes longer than it was on the shortest day). This means that it is lighter when we leave the shop, which makes a big psychological difference. On 29th February, in Nottingham, the day will be over three hours longer than it is now. Even the thought of it is enough to cheer me up.
It’s a sobering insight into the shortness of life. The days of wine and roses are indeed not long…
I was watching the Christmas University Challenge Final tonight and found myself doing quite well against a number of people with high-powered jobs and multiple degrees. The main difference between us, apart from my lack of degree and a job as a shop assistant, is that I suspect they all had confidence, plans ambition and productive work habits. I’ve just spent Christmas watching TV and playing Candy Crush when I should have been writing a best-seller and running an eBay business.
Ah well…
I did manage to get the outline of my presentation done. I have quite a lot of material on 1919 and went through it, with suitable reference to mutinies, Russia, Ireland, strikes, riots, war memorials and the Baltic.
Happy at the breadth and depth of my knowledge, and my grasp of the subject matter, I was alerted to the fact that this feeling was not universal by a gentle snore from Julia’s direction.
It looks like I’m going to have to do some editing.
UK £5 2017
Today’s pictures are all recycled, with vague links to Christmas and 1919.
A lovely coin!
I’m torn on the subject of coloured coins. I don’t like the use of colour, but I do appreciate the time taken in thinking about the design.
Yes, I see what you mean.
I try not to think too much about spring because experience tells me that no sooner has spring arrived than it’s bloody winter again. When I was a boy, time dragged appallingly and Christmas never came. Something has gone wrong with time since then.
It’s all those aerosols, they have broken the calendar. I have noticed that summer goes quicker and the winter drags as I get older. I fear, from what you say, that it can only get worse.
Jackie had an elderly acquaintance who began with “the nights are drawing in” immediately after the longest day. If I wish to light the blue touch paper I will occasionally repeat the phrase.
🙂 🙂 🙂 I can see that it could have that effect. 🙂
There’s that beautiful robin on the stamp again! Yes, the days are perceptibly longer at night now. Spring is on the way.
I really need to get more photographs! 🙂
1919 was quite a year.