Don’t doom us to darker days

 Take Back The Clocks wants daylight saving to be abolished:

. . .Louis Houlbrooke, chief executive and founder of Take Back The Clocks, said the twice yearly changes disrupted people’s sleep, were unnatural, and made international business much more complicated.

“They cause disruption and inconvenience to people’s lives in a trivial sense but also in more serious ways with tired drivers and the impact on dairy cows.” . . 

Most people who favour shifting clocks forward want more light for recreation in the evening. They don’t take into account that that means less light in the morning for people who work, making it harder to do early morning tasks like milking and mustering.

He suggested moving New Zealand to permanent “summer hours” – the change in late September that leads to sunnier evenings and darker mornings.

If there is any change to daylight saving it should be shorter not longer.

When it started clocks went forward in late October and back in early March. Someone decided if some daylight saving was good, more would be better without taking into account we don’t get the same amount of daylight all year.

We were waking up to light at 6am last week, this week it’s nearly 7am and before the clocks go back in autumn the sun doesn’t rise here until about 7:50. It’s even worse further south.

Waiting a few weeks in spring before clocks went forward and putting them back in early to mid March would make a big difference to the amount of light in the morning.

If daylight saving was permanent, mid-winter sunrise wouldn’t be until 9:30am in Invercargill.

Children would be walking and biking to school in the dark, roads would be icier until later and there would be no benefit from a bit more light in the evening when it’s so cold.

Daylight saving is too long now, please don’t doom us to year-long darker dawns.

Another week of dark mornings

The sun was just starting to rise at 6:50ish a couple of weeks ago.

Last week it was only just getting light at 7:15ish.

We’ve got another week until the clocks go back.

Sigh mutter, mumble.

Daylight saving starts to early and finishes too late.

Mutter mumble #%$**&^%$!

It’s that time of year again.

It was getting light around 6am until this morning. Now we’ve lost an hour ant it’s dark until nearly 7am.

It wouldn’t be so bad if there was both sufficient light and warmth in the evening. But we’ve only just passed the spring equinox, there was fresh snow on the Kakanuis a few days ago and it’s still too cool and dark too early at the end of the day.

Another cool night expected about central and eastern parts of the North Island, and inland parts of the South Island https://t.co/Yjbq0jxdqz ^PL pic.twitter.com/mw0Js8VMKz

— MetService (@MetService) September 29, 2018

In another few weeks when the sun has moved further south it will be lighter, and hopefully warmer, at both ends of the day.

Until then I will resent the lost hour in the morning – and those getting up earlier to milk, shear, muster, nurse or any of the other worst hat requires early starts will lament the cold, dark, later dawn even more.

Sun comes up at the perfect time to get the cows in, nothing highlights the urban/rural divide like daylightfknsaving. pic.twitter.com/4b6MqCcqcf

— Paul Singh (@Saarbo1) September 28, 2018

365 days of gratitude

In Hawes Bay yesterday spring had sprung.

Daffodils were in full bloom and rhododendrons were in flower.

Back home spring is a bit later but the grass has started growing again and the first of the daffodils are blooming.

Today I’m grateful for signs of spring.

 

Clocks forward permanently

The scheduled return to standard New Zealand time tomorrow morning has been cancelled and clocks will stay one-hour ahead permanently.

A spokesman for the Department of Infernal Affairs, Ms Sunny Disposition said that putting clocks back signalled the start of winter to many people and since summer weather had been so disappointing, few if any were ready for it.

“Most people agree daylight saving is good and if some is good then ipso facto more must be better,” she said.

“We can’t change the weather, but we can keep the clocks forward and allow people more daylight. The sun comes out in the day and after the sorry excuse for summer over much of the country that’s what we need to cheer us all up – more day and less night.

“We’ll all get more vitamin D and save power with less need for electric lights.”

A reporter who pointed out that whether or not clocks stayed forward an hour, there would be less daylight as the sun moved north, was told that wasn’t in the Department’s brief.

“Clocks and time are our preserve, if you have a question about the sun you’d be better talking to Met Service or NIWA,” Miss Disposition said.

“I understand someone from one or other of them will be available to talk around mid day.”

 

 

366 days of gratitude

The trees are still bare but daffodil leaves are poking through the ground, snow drops are flowering and the daphne is in bloom.

Daphne’s scent always evokes memories of my mother’s garden.

Would it smell as sweet if it wasn’t for those memories and the knowledge that the flowers are fleeting?

Possibly not, but I’m enjoying it while it’s here and am grateful for it.

366 days of gratitude

We’ve had an unusually warm winter but the last few days have reminded us which season it is.

Sunday was showery, yesterday was one of those cloudy days with a southerly straight from Antarctica and we woke to a heavy frost this morning.

But the sky was cloudless, the sun shone all day and at last we’re getting more daylight hours for which I’m very grateful.