Winter Solstice

The 22nd of June, Winter Solstice in this part of the world.

I was hoping the day would dawn with a lovely, fine day after rain and clouds the day before.

It did!

The funny thing is that today is back to rain.

The shortest day of the year here in Cairns apparently lasted 11hours 

The sunrise was an interesting one with a line of light coming up from where the sun was yet to rise.

That was something I hadn't seen before.

Down on the Esplanade, what a way to start the shortest day of the year.

Discussing solstice in class yesterday lead to one of the students learning about opposite. Japan, being in the northern hemisphere, is in the opposite season to Australia so of cause yesterday was their Summer solstice. I love it when our learning ends up related to real life discussions, things that interest the students or even that they bring up, rather than just what is in the texts.

How was your winter solstice?

Did you fit a lot into the shortest amount of daylight this year?

I fit in early morning photos, obviously, work including a bus and walking tour, a quick trip to the shop for bread and milk on the way home and some dinner cooking. Just the normal stuff. The day just disappeared but it was a nice one.

But to be completely honest the start of it and the real end of it when I fell into bed after midnight were probably the highlights. That and our lovely older male student who is a bit of a clown and completely excited about everything in his stilted English. His wife, who is also in our group, is a patient women but also a lot of fun.

Now to go and be a bit productive today like washing my uniform for tonight and getting it dry. Also I should probably make that jam I need to make and clean up some stuff I am supposed to clean up. Or maybe I might read a book and have a nap.

Have a good week!

Winter Solstice

Wow! The shortest day of the year has passed us by, whizzing in and out without any ceremony. 

The 21st, yesterday, was the shortest day of the year here in the southern hemisphere and the same date is the longest day for the northern hemisphere.

I had the thought of capturing both the beginning and end of the day. When I was awake before sunrise it became a reality and something I just had to do.

 Sunrise in Cairns was at 6:45am.

 

I headed out for a short walk around near our place to try and capture some pretty and clear sunrise sky.

 

Sunset was a 5:52pm.

 

I headed out aiming for the Barron River but got sidetracked by the thought of sun on sugar cane flowers. That was where I stayed too.

The daylight hours lasted 11 hours and 7 minutes plus some seconds (my guess is about 5 seconds as today is supposed to be 6 seconds).

The day was nothing special in our house, just a normal weekend with Mr Sparky on call, me a little tired (and grumpy according to Mr Sparky) after my first night back on night fill after having some time off and both of us just hanging about at home as you do. The skies were clear and the weather beautiful, much more the northern winter it should be.