I don’t recall the first day of fall being the 23rd. I would naively have imagined it to be the 21st, as it always seemed to be when I was a kid in school. Whether I just remember wrong or it’s actually changed, makes for delicious contemplation in quiet moments.<\/p>\n
Sunday evening I had the fortune of watching the sun set through the kitchen window, which looks straight east. I’d say it finally sank beneath the horizon at about 7:10pm.<\/p>\n
As I understand it, the first day of fall – and of spring – is the same length for everyone: twelve hours, theoretically. I’ve come to believe that equinox<\/em> means night and day are equal: twelve hours each.<\/p>\n Without daylight-savings time, one might imagine a twelve-hour day running from 6am to 6pm – which is what I’m told happens in the tropics year-round (more or less). Those of us who live in the north – we’re about 50degN here – are used to long summer days and short winter ones. I’d say our summer days reach about 16 hours in late June, while in late December, the day can be as short as 8hrs 5min.<\/p>\n Of course, with daylight savings time, our twelve hour day runs roughly from 7am to 7pm. Sunday’s 7:10pm sunset seems to agree. I can’t watch the sun rise from the kitchen because houses and trees obscure it. However, environment canada<\/a> claims that today’s sunrise was 7:08am. I’d say we’re pretty close to that twelve hour day.<\/p>\n Some people love the fall; others feel the opposite way, seeing it as the end of carefree days when you don’t need coat and boots to leave the house. Where I live, the climate is mild, but with fall commences our seven-month rainy season. This afternoon it’s 12C, rainy, and windy; it’s very difficult to walk from the car to the door without getting quite wet.<\/p>\n Let fall begin:)<\/p>\n