Clocks
Posted in Events dear boy. Events at 23:18 on 18 December 2008
This week I have left the house each morning in darkness, and returned to it in the evening, also in darkness. Since I donât usually leave my workplace even for lunch it makes it feel as if daylight hasnât happened.
Still, it is deepest, darkest winter and less than a week to the shortest day; after which itâs all uphill till June in terms of light.
Well, not quite. Sunrise and sunset times do not change in step with each other throughout the year so one â I forget which – changes faster than the other at this time of year. But the trend is in the right direction.
I was going to post about this anyway – as an upturn and signal of hope for a new year.
But yesterday morning there was some numpty from the South of England moaning in the Notes & Queries section of The Guardian about the change to British Summer Time (BST) not being done in February.
Now, I was at school in Dumbarton during that three year experiment when BST persisted through the winter. It was awful. Morning upon morning of unremitting gloom with no real benefit at the end of the day. Darkness is much, much worse to endure in the morning than in the evening. What those further north felt about it I can only imagine.
I quite like the clocks changing. It is one of the few ways now – since food of all kinds is available in supermarkets all year round – that we are still connected to the rhythm of the seasons.
Tags: Coldplay
sonsdiary
18 December 2008 at 23:31
Jack
I am freak I think I suffer from seasonal affected disorder the opposite from everyone else,or maybe I am just an auld Victor Meldrew–I love the winter.
No weans out playing at 11 at night when I am in my bed. no picking balls out my front and back garden,no trampolines which my house is surrounded by.
Naw give me the winter any time ,rain and gales battering my windows and tucked up on a sunday with wall to wall football
Ye cannae whack it !!!!!!
Martin McCallion
19 December 2008 at 13:43
I guess that was the time when school started at 9:30 for us, instead of 9. I was in primary school. I don’t remember it happening for three years, though. I think I associate all that with three-day weeks and powercuts, though, so I may have been confused at the time.
There is, of course, nothing inherently seasonal about the clock-change (compared to, say, the leaves turning in autumn), but I know what you mean about quite liking the change.
That said, I sometimes think we should align the clocks with mainland Europe. It seems to me that leaving work in the dark is worse than leaving the house in morning twilight. But then, I live in London, so it probably gets light significantly earlier.
What invariably annoys me is farmers complaining about clock changes. If you’ve got to start work at dawn , then it doesn’t matter what we call the dawn. Whether it’s 5am, 7am, or noon, those are only human names for the actual physical event, and they don’t really affect when you have to get up.