The Lights of December

December on northern Vancouver Island is, in a word, dark. Being on the 50th parallel means we get light late and dark early – even with daylight savings time we only have about 7.5 hours of daylight. Add in the wet storms that hit the island throughout December, and it can feel dark for days on end.

I think this is why I love putting lights on the house in December, and love seeing them around the neighbourhood. They are a bright light in a dark month, and they always make me smile. Whether elegant white lights or full-on Christmas explosions I appreciate any effort to bring light to the month.

Getting the lights up can be a challenge, as the weather is so dicey. Usually we take advantage of the first decent week-end at the end of November. This year we were lucky and had a clear day on November 29.

It has been so dark since then as storm system after storm system has cycled through (system #3 is expected to hit tonight) that our dusk timer has been turning the lights on again at about 11 and turning them off by the early evening (it’s set for 6 hours). I have had to go out and manually reset it a number of times, in the rain and wind. But it is so worth it, to see those twinkling lights in the dark.

Master untangler.

Do not take my photo, Mom! I know you are by the screen door!

Torti, the supervisor.

It really was dark, this is what my camera does when I set it to night mode.

This is how dark it really was, camera on no flash setting.

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