Winter waning

Living on mostly solar power, we have developed a plant's appreciation of the sun. Not just sunlight itself, but its duration and intensity. Now we're about a month and a half from the Solstice, when day length was the shortest and the apex of the sun's trajectory the lowest of the year. The earth has actually been moving farther away from the sun since early January, but the combination of the earth's orbit and tilt means that we are tipping back toward our star.

As I wrote this yesterday, the clouds veiled the sun high overhead, but the happy hum of power coursing through our solar powered system makes me wish I had more use for electricity. Other creatures are also enjoying the relatively warm day. The dogs are romping outside and mixed foraging flocks of chickadees, titmice, nuthatches and woodpeckers are making a raucous noise. Back on the other side of Solstice when temperatures were dropping, leaves were also in various stages of falling. In general, spring in the forest is sunnier than autumn.

Of course we're still in the middle of solar winter with a month and a half to go til the vernal equinox. Even last Sunday when temperatures dallied in the 50's and I unearthed a slowly moving spider, a layer of snow and ice hid the ground. Bulbs and rhizomes are waiting for the ground to unfreeze so they can shoot up and flourish before the leaves return and the canopy again obscures the power of the sun.