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Precious hours of daylight

The Scottish winter days continue to shorten.  We have about eight hours of good daylight at this time of the year.  The winter solstice is one of my favourite days in the year.  It means, of course, that the days start to lengthen again and by the middle of June we really only have about three hours of proper darkness between midnight and three in the morning.  Roll on 21 December!  

This morning, at 7.30, the sky looked like this.  The moon is waning now but last week there were some braw, bricht, moonlicht nichts!  
Today, less than half an hour later, as we walked down the drive for the school bus, the sky was ablaze with colour.
And one skein of geese flew overhead as they commuted across to Aberlady Bay.  They are flying lower over the house now, sometimes just above the surrounding trees.  I can hear the swoosh of their wings beating as they pass.  It's an exhilarating moment and I always look out of the window or nip outside when I hear them approaching.
By the time Tilly and I have walked half way round the block the sun is up and at the moment the colour of this particular field never ceases to amaze me.  I think it is a future crop of rapeseed and the intensity of its green is extraordinary.

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