My new online project...

Thursday, 21 October 2010

The hammer of darkness

One more working week before the clocks go back, and then no more leaving the office before dark for five months. A deeply depressing thought. Yes, there will be those wonderful sunny days of winter (such as this one, this one and this one), but here in Warsaw there will just over be seven and half hours of daylight in late December (compared to nearly 17 in late June).

But having the annual cycle of darkness and light makes you cherish that light, makes you welcome the impending and inexorable return of spring, and with it longer, warmer days. Living near the equator, where seasonal fluctuations are less marked that in our more northerly latitudes, one can get blasé about the sun (and the effects of its lack on the psyche).

Above: ul. Buszycka, just after sunset. The last dying rays illuminate the clouds; a full moon is rising. You can't hold on to what's naturally fading.

When you have a bad day, be sure that a good day will come. And when you're having a good day - remember, darkness is only just around the corner.

Could Boethius have devised his wheel of fortune living on the equator?

Left: ul. Buszycka, looking quite un-European.

6 comments:

  1. Summer solstice is always greeted with mixed feelings (entering the tunnel), whereas winter solstice marks the emergence out of the tunnel.
    On the bright side, we're just a month away from the days getting longer.

    ReplyDelete
  2. we're just a month away from the days getting longer

    Two months, I think you'll find :-) and then three months after the winter solstice before the clocks go forward again.

    Sob!

    ReplyDelete
  3. yeah, that higher math stuff is sure perplexing. I would rather skip November anyway.
    ::))

    Our clocks aren't moved back until the first Sunday in November and are turned forward on the second Sunday in March (unless, you're from Saskatchewan...don't ask)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Autumn/early winter is my favourite time of the year because of days like this - there's nothing like bright sunshine on a chilly day. :-)
    Raf

    ReplyDelete
  5. Come! let us plunge into the elemental beauty of Autumn's benison. Light and dark, reverie and reflection, the past and the future, the heavy and insistent pull of the moon! My favourite season by far. London's colours blaze in the physical process of their ageing and their transformation! The air is thick with that special tingle of nascent expectation and the world of the sub-atoms vibrates as close by as you like. All is certain and yet everything remains uncertain! Hail suburban bonfire smoke and the early morning chill. Tis' the time for stories.

    JW

    Ps. More utterly striking and breathtaking photos, btw.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Raf, Jonno - you're both right. Enough moaning already! We must revel - not rage - at the dying light! For in it there is beauty. And, as Baudelaire said (quoting Uncle Monty), there is no true beauty without decay.

    ReplyDelete