As those who know me will attest, I don’t really like winter. Part of it is the sheer ickiness of getting around, because, let’s face it, we get mostly rainy snow or snowy rain. Not much you can do with that besides get wet and cold. Another part of it has to do with the balance of dark and light. From early December to mid-February, we don’t get much sunlight. Lately, according to Environment Canada, the sun has been officially rising at 7:25am and setting at 4:13pm. Eight hours and forty eight minutes of daylight today. Dusk and dawn stretch it out a bit, but still…..I stagger through December fairly well because the preoccupation with Christmas generally distracts from doing much outside. After the holidays, things get trickier. I’m hoping to distract myself with work and photography. To keep my sights set on the days getting longer, I periodically check the National Research Council’s Sunrise/Sunset Calculator. As you can see, by around mid-February we’ll be back to the amount of daylight we’re getting right now. Until then, we get to see lots of moons and stars. Hopefully the pictures won’t get overly monotonous!