Today was the shortest day of the year and marks the official beginning of winter. After Thanksgiving I always look forward to the winter solstice as the length of days are gradually shortening.

Of course, the solstice is the official start of winter but depending on where you live it usually feels like winter much sooner. Especially if you live in an area where it snows.

It is nice to have a time of year when the trees are bare and there is a great opportunity for interesting reflection pictures of the trees in water. The picture above is from near our office in Jena, Germany.

If I am in Germany during December I only get about 8 hours from sunrise to sunset. Here we have about 9 and a half hours.

Today was also foggy which made the day seem shorter as it was darker than usual.

I have also been remembering the winter solstice from five years ago. I was in Glasgow, Scotland and experienced my shortest day ever. However, it was A Long Shortest Day as I had a packed schedule. That day had less than seven hours of daylight and was also cold and rainy

Of course, there are many people who live far enough north that their shortest days have no daylight at all.

I am also thinking of colleagues that live in Singapore as they will only have 12 hours and 3 minutes of daylight today. I am sure that they will not notice the difference as this is only 9 minutes less than what they have on the day of the summer solstice.

I am definitely looking forward to longer days as it will make sheltering in place more bearable. I am working during most of the daylight hours and the evenings are so dark.

Steven