Gardening From the Ground Up: THE SUNSHINE OF OUR LIVES

Thursday, September 13, 2012

THE SUNSHINE OF OUR LIVES

Carolina blue sky with cirrus clouds

The fall season’s first burst of open-window weather arrived Monday morning, with a pleasant north-northeasterly breeze. Oh, it won’t last, but it’s made for a welcome change from 137% humidities. The clear air sparkles with the first hints of autumn coming, the light visibly slanting as the sun lines up with the equator. Yellowed poplar leaves above browning bracken ferns hug the ditches along Rt. 133, hinting at imminent change. Closer to home, working in the garden transforms from a sweaty chore to purest joy.

How the sun appears to travel

across the sky during the

autumnal equinox

Once the initial thrill of turning off the air-conditioner for whole days at a time subsides, however, the melancholy side of my nature whispers that the sunlit hours begin to decrease in earnest as we move inexorably toward autumnal equinox. Since I find intellectual activity soothing, I did some research to pin down the sine wave that day-lengths follow over the course of a year on Oak Island.

Sunrise to sunset, our seven longest days in June run 14 hours and 25 minutes long. Winter solstice, on December 21 this year, logs only nine hours and 53 minutes of sunshine; the five days on either side of solstice clock in one minute longer. The graph below depicts day-lengths on the winter and summer solstices, vernal and autumnal equinoxes, and the four cross-quarter days of Imbolc, Beltane, Lughnasadh and Samhain, pronounced “sou(as in south)-EEN.”

Please click on this to make it readable

Why mention the cross-quarters? (Don't know what a cross-quarter is? See the "Things Are Looking Up" post from August 13, 2011.) Despite their medieval, New-Age, wiccan and pagan associations, those dates have real as well as symbolic meaning for Northern hemisphere gardeners, celebrating key transition points in the cycle of cultivation:

the first stirrings of new life;

Beltane

planting crops;

first harvest;

and final harvest.

Still feeling a little blue, I moved on to the U.S. Naval Observatory’s sunrise/sunset chart. The next graph resulted from plotting day-lengths from another angle.

Again, click for readability (if not legibility: see below)

Okay, we’re done with graphs. Those colored inks don’t erase as well as pencil does.

Plus I feel better now. Sure, the amount of sunlight we get each day is shrinking now, but it’ll stretch out again soon. Soon? You bet. Labor Day’s gone, so that means Halloween lurks around the corner (as a visit to any store will attest); Thanksgiving and Christmas won’t be far behind. After winter solstice, we start the sunlight upswing again.

Summer solstice graphic

Winter solstice graphic

There's no good reason for the above graphics. I just think they're pretty.

Ah, reassuring cycles.

*****

Now for something completely different.

At the top of my bedside reading stack is Simon Garfield's fascinating Just My Type: A Book about Fonts. You may think the shapes of letters rank far down on the list of influential factors in your life, but you'd be wrong. Readability versus legibility issues aside, fonts make texts feel purposeful or playful, emotional or detached, scholarly or goofy, formal or informal, quaint or modern, with-it or stuffy, straightforward or fussy, serious or inane, even male or female. Take a minute to really look at the nine examples below. Which one appeals most to your eye? Are you a serif or sans serif aficionado? Have any clue as to why or why not? Or why a movement exists to ban breezy and conversational-looking Comic Sans?

TIMES NEW ROMAN