Friday, December 11, 2009

Behold, it snoweth




I just like saying that.

One of the reasons I feel so comfortable living in northern Ontario is the amount of sunlight we receive. I spent most of my life in the snowbelts of Southern Ontario. In winter, it was either dull and dreary or snowing and dreary. From about Hallowe'en to mid January, I was almost homicially SAD. Most people are glad that I no longer live there, except for the store owners who sold refined sugar, complex carbohydrates and restraining orders.




The North has about 30% more sunshiny days than the snowbelt. I love the quality of the sunlight up here. The sky is huge and open and full of shapes. The days are longer by almost 40 minutes in high summer. Most wonderful of all, is watching the lines of snow squalls hammer at the regions south. Today was a gloriously sunny day. I stood out of the wind, in my ankle deep snow and photographed the squall clouds.




There is a snow emergency in that other part of the world, with 80 to 100 centimetres of snow to fall today. Hunker in your bunker with eggnog and cookies because you aren't going anywhere until it stops. I'm free to move about, swaddled to the eyeballs against the wind, but able to enjoy the light and the beauty that is winter on the Island.




2 comments:

  1. It is really grey here in southern ontario in the winter, I hate it. I had no idea that the northern part had more sunshine. Very interesting.

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  2. I would love to visit Ontario someday. I do not like summers at all, but love winters. The sunshine falling on the snow in the pictures looks amazing.

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