Winter Solstice

Totally cheesy solstice design thanks to chatGPT

Happy Winter Solstice, the day with the least amount of light in the northern hemisphere of this blue ball that we are travelling on. Stirling at around 56.1° N gets less than 7 hours of sunlight, assuming the sun makes an appearance which by the looks of today is unlikely due to cloud cover. Striling is one of the darker parts of Central Scotland during the winter solstice but is far better of than someplace like Thurso (58.6° N) which gets less than six hours.

The winter grows noticeably longer the farther north you travel. Take Shetland, for example—often overlooked on maps of Scotland, yet it represents the very northern edge of the country. At its northernmost point, around 60.8° N, daylight lasts only about five hours, a stark reminder of how dramatically the seasons shift as you approach the Arctic.

At this time of year I always feel that winter solstice gives me time to slow down and reflect on the previous year and to take stock if anything has changed with myself, a little older, fatter and balder are my day to day observations, At this time of year gives me pause for deeper reflection, about what has grown, shed and where I see my direction for the next year.

As AI is the. hot topic just now I let chatGPT design the artwork for this post, a change from my normal solstice artowrk, but I like the AI design for it’s cheesy and a. little over the top desgin. Can’t wait till the machines ruse up, can’t be that long now 🤣.

The daylight gets longer from here on in, enjoy.

GIS Day


It almost always surprises me every year, when I get an email from ESRI saying that today is GIS day, apparently ESRI chose it. Not specifically the 19th of November, but the third Wednesday in November. I assume this is because like myself Wednesday can be a bit of a slog. Here is the internets description of GIS day:

GIS Day is an annual event celebrating geographic information systems based technologies on the third Wednesday of November. The event first took place in 1999. It was initiated by spatial analytics software provider Esri. Esri president and co-founder Jack Dangermond credits Ralph Nader with being the person who inspired the creation of GIS Day. He considered the event a good initiative for people to learn about geography and the many uses of GIS. He wanted GIS Day to be a grassroots effort and open to everyone to participate. Today, the event provides an international forum for users of GIS technology from across the GIS industry to demonstrate real-world applications that are making a difference in society.

Of course as an avid Open Source Software user I promote QGIS over ArcGIS everyday of the week especially since ESRI changed their subscription model. So “Happy GIS Day” go forth and create great maps!

Fly Boy

Note the extremely winter jacket….

Spring seemed to be very cold and rainy and today it finally feels like summer is at least on its way, or has certainly sent a note with it’s arrival date.

Thankfully I can finally get out with the drone again and finally pass the GVC test and be licenced and insured for it, for project as well as fun.


Anyway, here is something from last summer and hopefully some good stuff from this summer later!

Random finds

So it has been a while since I have browsed around my network drive, I usually just use it for downloads nowadays, and for storing old images.

I came across a directory of images I that I kept when I was still living in The Netherlands that for one reason or another I kept. Most were ‘collected’ when I was loading data. Some of them made me laugh, some were (a little) inspirational and some were images of woman that were “wow” so to speak.

Here is a snapshot of these, click and hover for the Lightbox and explanation.

I have no idea who owns these images or what the copyright is on them. Am not sure I particularly care either ;-)

Winter Solstice

Today represents the arduous descent to the day with the shortest amount of light, the winter solstice. The peak of Saturnalia as represented by my light ‘candle’. As much as I love winter I do enjoy the sunlight being a bit longer as 8:45 is ridiculous for sunrise…

I hope that you are enjoying the Saturnalia festivities that you may have going on, or any other pagan rituals that you are into!