January 26

The angle of the noon day sun is just perceptibly higher in the sky than it was a month ago For the first two weeks of January, I kept fooling myself into believing that this were so, but now I do think it to be true.

It is a minor victory as we’ve turned the corner from the solstice, marching ever onward in our seasonal shift.

It is more apparent in the coming of the dawn and setting of the sun; our days are lengthening. Still, this doesn't mean we can start putting away our winter clothes for lighter wear. It is still cold out, after all, and thought the sun’s rays strike more directly and for longer with each passing day, they are yet oblique enough to generate much warmth. Any that we do receive must arrive with a coming front, normally on the heels of an incoming snowstorm that blossoms from the southern Atlantic states and works its way to New England.

Patience though. Soon the sun’s rays will penetrate deeply enough within the ground and trees, awakening the pulse of life within. Soon enough the frost and ice, glistening now in the noon sun, will yield to the warmth, retreating cold giving way to the vitality of another spring.