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.

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!

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!

Snapshots of 2023

Have been unbelievably slack on keeping this journal up to date, something I hope to rectify next year. Thought I would post some shots from the year so far.

A short snippet of the coast at El Golfo

Breakfast Views

Acutely aware that it is now mid-summer and that it has felt like a metaphorical 5 minutes since my last post. In an attempt to not have this journal / blog / thread / twitter feed (delete as appropriate) fall off the interwebs I thought I would post my breakfast view this morning.

The Falkirk Wheel

The Fakirk Wheel

The Falkirk Wheel has just won a TripAdvisor People Choice award for 2023, so well done to the team in Falkirk Am very happy to be associated with such an engineering marvel and the whole Scottish Canals staff.