Just a bit of revelry in the natural world today—nothing too heady or sappy.
As you all know, I get excited about watching the sun swirl lower in the sky at this time of the year in Antarctica. The process is simply stunning. After weeks and weeks of nothing but the sun’s blinding whiteness, we’ve got color returning to the sky and sea. Right now, McMurdo Station is still getting its twenty-four hours of daylight, but on February 20, the sun will dip below the horizon for the first time, and then the following day, we will already have lost two hours and twenty minutes of daylight. That much light, gone.
I said I wouldn’t get heady, but I changed my mind. I can’t help but think about how the sun’s rapid departure mirrors our own. It is in some ways comforting to know that a place and its people can sometimes move together like this: in sync.
Tracing the Sun—Days until next sunset: 6.
1 response so far ↓
billsdad // February 18, 2007 at 6:40 am
This is bill-the-elder, as opposed to bill-the-younger. Thanks for your running commentary on the passing of the season. And, I love your pictures. Thanks.
Leave a Comment