Winter Solstice, Sitka, Dec 21, 2013

It’s the turning of the season, Winter Solstice.  Living in the North it really is midwinter, and while we have a lot of cold ahead the returning sun presents the promise of spring.  Because we are closest to the sun these days the tides are particularly high and low.  Sitting on my perch at the edge of the Pacific I get a ringside seat of the turning, the turning of the sun, the turning of the tides, the turning of the seasons.  This miracle of a planet with a 23.3 degree tilt and a slightly elliptical orbit gives us these gifts.  This is what we celebrate this time of year.  This is the primal celebration, all the other festivities of the season come from this.  The traditions we cherish are all grafted on to this basic miracle of the darkness turning toward the light.   Here comes the Sun.  Happy New Year.

I had planned to get up early (well, this time of the year that means up by 8:40) to include photos from the Solstice sunrise.  Given the skies last night and the forecast I expected it to be pretty nice.  It wasn’t.  It was overcast, grey skies meeting grey sea, (to paraphrase a Marie-Lynn Hammond song.) So instead I’m posting sleected pics of Mt. Edgcumbe, across Sitka Sound.  It reflects all the moods of our weather.

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