SOLSTICE SUN

Getting used to seasonal shifts in daylight hours has been one of the hardest things to adapt to since moving to Europe. Although I spent many years in New Zealand when I was young, I lived near the equator long enough to consider daylight hours of equal length all year round as normal. Still, I finally got my little hound over to the UK a couple of weeks ago so my new daily routine involves getting up an hour earlier (groan) to be dragged comatose around the countryside.

Oh well, at least it means I'm guaranteed to get a small dose of sunshine every day. Otherwise, the hound seems to have taken to country life like a duck to the proverbial (or in my case like a spaniel to the proverbial; he has finally discovered mud). Luckily there's been a hard frost that's come through which is keeping things a little cleaner.