Oh joy! We gained 3 minutes and 29 seconds of daylight today over yesterday. I love it when the daylight-gain really starts rolling, like a snowball rolling downhill – a little faster with each passing day.
Daylight today was a whopping 6 hours and 9 seconds, with dawn at 10:02 am and dusk at 4:12 pm.
This wonderful increase in daylight started the day after Winter Solstice (which has the shortest day of the year, with a measly 5 hours and 27:44 seconds of total daylight where I live).
Back on December 21st; our daylight – dawn to dusk – was from 10:13 am to 3:41 pm, for a net LOSS of −0:06 seconds over the day before. Yes! I begrudge each and every second lost.
The following day, on December 22, the ball crested the hill and started rolling the other direction. We here in Alaska celebrated our daylight gain of +0.06 seconds! Yes, it was a tiny gain, but hey! We were finally at least beginning the heady roll towards summer, and gaining momentum each day!
At that point we were only gaining a few extra seconds each day, but with each additional day, the number of seconds gained, and then minutes gained, increases.
As a random reference; on New Year’s Day, our daylight gain had increased to 2 minutes and 4 seconds over the day before. It may have been freezing cold and blowing snow outside, but that was still a win in my book!
By the end of February, we’ll be gaining 5 minutes and 44 seconds of daylight every single day, and this rollicking rate will continue until April 8th, at which point, the rapid gains in daylight start to slow (just a little at first) until the ball finally comes to relative rest on Summer Solstice.
But we won’t talk about that now. Right now, we’re riding the snowball down the hill, whooping and hollering as we look forward to sunnier and sunnier days to come!
De & the Dachsies - Our Rambles 
Even here, close to the 45th parallel, we can notice the days getting longer. And the sunrise is shifting steadily northward as well. Oh, what exciting signs! I know we have months of cold and rain ahead of us, but even the intimation of approaching spring gives hope to the dark- oppressed spirit.
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I look forward to sunnier days too! Even though we’re gaining time, we’ve had two solid weeks of cloudy weather, with maybe 30 seconds worth of sun here and there. Waiting (not so patiently)!
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