This is proper winter now. The sun has
gone. No more sun this year. We still have some hours of light each day, but
the sunrise bleeds into sunset which fades into darkness.
I was driving home at 11.30 and looking at
the unreal light-blue of the fjord and pink wash of the sky. I thought to myself
that these were colours which ought really to have their own names. I never saw
them before I moved here. I went outside with a camera to photograph what I
could, slipping twice on the ice at the edge of the fjord. From next week until
spring all pictures will come out in shades of blue.
By two o'clock the moon was high in the sky,
reflecting in the fjord and lighting up the snow. Streetlights reflect in the
water opposite us, making our cabin feel a little less remote.
We've been burning up a good deal of our
wood supply. Last night we lay in bed with the door open, watching shapes
from the flames in the living room dancing on the bedroom ceiling.
When most of the day is dark it often feels
much later than it is. You keep thinking it must soon be time to go to bed, but
then you look up at the clock and discover it's 6.30 in the afternoon. Still,
you get very little done. People go into semi-hibernation at this time of year.
Life gets quieter. Sleep is your friend.
