Here at 51.5 degrees north latitude,  on this day of the year, the sun rises at 8:06 am and sets at 4:00 pm.  By 2:30 in the afternoon, you can already sense the sun beginning its low-angle wane into the golden hour.

I read that the short days of winter can reduce levels of melatonin and serotonin causing the “Winter Blues”, and  I wondered how I might survive living here.  So I checked the almanac, and if you can just hang on until February you have already gained back an hour and twenty minutes of daylight, with the promise of a very long day pay-off in the summer. The short, dark days don’t seem to affect these Londoners.  The picture below is 3:30 in the afternoon at Kensington Gardens, which is just down from our hotel.  With a warm sweater and coat, we were very comfortable and enjoyed our short day immensely.   The payoff was a very long, pretty sunset.