Living in London

Today is December 21, the Winter Solstice. That means that today is the day of the year that the sun is farthest south.

More importantly, it means that today is the shortest day of the year. This morning the sun rose in London at 8:05 AM. It will set at 3:55 PM for a total of 7 hours and 50 minutes of sunlight. Of course, I use the word "sunlight" here in a theoretical sense, since the sun has been obscured by clouds all day.

At least for the next six months the days will be getting longer. The future is so bright . . .

(Thanks to Jim Wilson for the picture of nearby Stonehenge, where the solstice is celebrated with a passion.)

[Update: for our friends in Alaska, we sympathise with your darkness. I heard Esther mention on the Whole Wheat Radio audio magazine on Monday that on the winter solstice the sun was going to rise at 10:25 AM and set at 3:30 PM. Wow. That is only only 5 hours of daylight. I will never again complain about our 7 and 50 minutes of daylight again.]

After several weeks of travel we are back in London, and happy to be here. Sure California was 65 and sunny every day, and our home there is spacious and comfortable. Sure we miss our family there (not to mention our friends whom we were unable to see). Sure our dollar was actually worth something there. But hey, as our friend David Campbell would say, "did we mention that we are in LONDON?"

We restocked our inventories of things from America that we need for winter. We brought bottles of lotion for dry skin induced by the cold weather. We brought coats from places where our dollar actually allowed us to purchase nice ones and we brought boots to keep our toes warm. We brought yarn to knit some fabulous scarves (contrary to what most Americans would believe, the knitting stores here are nothing compared to those in California where knitting is a full blown craze).

We are ready for a white Christmas London. Lay it on us.