Today marks the passing of the Winter Solstice, which also means the shortest day of the year along with the "official" arrival of winter.
Today also marks an astronomical event called "The Great Conjunction" which basically means that the two largest planets in the Solar System — Jupiter and Saturn — are very close to each other from our visual perspective almost forming a "double planet" in the sky. This is something that only happens about once every 800 years!
Unfortunately, we did not get to the the Conjunction around here because we were busy getting started on the First Day of Winter... which meant heavy cloud cover and by about 3pm, the first real snow of the winter season. Even though it has been a pretty wet December, it has been pretty warm (meaning 45-50 degrees — 7 to 10 degrees C — during the day)... and this was the first time we'd seen more than a handful of snowflakes.
So winter is right "on time!"
Too bad we missed the show in the sky, but I guess you don't get everything!
Although I don't have pictures to share, watching the snow come down reminded me of my childhood in Denmark, and how we — as school kids — all were hoping for a "White Christmas." Although Denmark is a long way north, we surprisingly enough don't get snow for Christmas very often.
I only remember White Christmas happening once when I still lived there (we moved to the south of Spain when I was 14) and that was in 1969 when I was 9 years old. I mostly remember it because I got my first camera — a Kodak Instamatic — for Christmas that year, and I was immediately able to go outside and take a picture of the snow in our yard.
Even then, I thought it was very pretty to look at, but the primary interest for me was that snowfall meant a chance for me to go out and earn a little money by shoveling driveways.
I still think snow is very pretty, but I don't care for having to get out and drive around in it. Here in Western Washington state it definitely does snow from time to time, but not often enough the Highway Department has adequate equipment to clear it, except in cities and on major highways.
Anyway, time for me to post this and feel grateful that the days are once again getting longer, not shorter!
Thanks for reading, and have a great week!
How about YOU? Does it snow where you live? Do you love the white stuff, or do you loathe it? Does "White Christmas" hold a memory for you? As always, comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!
(All text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is ORIGINAL CONTENT, created expressly for this platform — NOT A CROSSPOST!!!)
Created at 20201221 23:45 PST
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