Spring Equinox Here, in Northern Hemisphere: Free Vitamin D

The Spring Equinox is here, a day earlier than normal although not uncommon, in the Northern Hemisphere, as appropriately reported in The Sun, including a nice POP (PinkyOrangePurple) Stonehenge photo, and explanation that it’s caused by the way planet Earth travels around the sun.

End of mYm1

So I can hereby declare the continuation of the closing ceremony for the first full mistYmuse (Midwinter Ideal Sunrise Times [November 21st to January 21st] – Midwinter Until Spring Equinox [January 21st to March 21st]) winter light festival.

It started yesterday on fmpoetry with some selfYsun-love art branding I did during the festival, and that have now just fully healed, after the last ones were done two months ago.

More Sun than SAD 

I hope mYm helped those who suffer from SAD (Seasonally Affective Disorder) in the most challenging four months of the year, and entertained everybody.

The weather has been pretty average overall, a mild winter here, but as I’ve stated before, it’s about light rather than weather anyway. Our light is predictable, whereas weather fluctuates. This has been proved true over the last month.

It seemed love was in the air in romantic Valentine February, as the sun shone bright and temperatures rose much higher than normal, but then March saw a return to wintry weather. Thankfully, sun and warmer weather have now returned.

New buds are opening, and there’s a whole lotta photosynthesis going on!

Here’s a few photos of the emerging spring:

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Predictable Light 

Whereas the weather has been unpredictable, light has continued spreading earlier and later in the day, as shown on the met office weather forecast:

It seems a long way from the midwinter December 21st ideal sunrise times of about 08.30, followed not long after by the sunsets of about 15.45.

That was captured for posterity in January (better late than never) on my fmpoetry website, with the sunrise and sunset at the bottom of the screen then; and a bit of an earlier sunrise and later sunset than their late December latest and earliest.

Both those weeks also have mostly cloudy weather, which inspired my Greenygrey original idea, putting a positive green land spin on the normally grey weather, also hoping to conserve green spaces and trees; and some sunshine, which was the main weather reason for putting the Y into the ascendency with the greenYgrey rebranding.

In human terms it was both to support blonde women and show I wasn’t after non-blondes when the Establishment sent me to work in the ‘multicultural’ area of Leeds; or interested in seeing their hair, as some Islamists tried to make out my support for feminists fighting Islamist sexism was all about. Ironically, one of those women told me they don’t like ‘Jews’ around there – probably trying to get Jihadi ‘stripes’ and impress her male controllers!!

Spring Equinox International Day of Happiness and mistYmuse End Eve

The northern hemisphere spring equinox is today, at about 1600/1700 in the U.K., so it’s quite easy to celebrate the International Day of Happiness. However, it must be harder for people in the southern hemisphere, with today marking the beginning of autumn, and the end of the warmer months.

Happiness is Relative

There are a lot of people who find it difficult to be happy in the northern hemisphere too, and that’s where things like society and culture make a difference. Iceland is one of the ‘happiest’ countries despite being one of the coldest.

That’s mostly why I set up the mistYmuse (Midwinter Ideal Sunrise Times and Midwinter Until Spring Equinox) to bring some happiness to the most difficult months, covering November to March.

I could have been saying it was timed right this year (although not the day, as it falls on the 20th this year, rather than 21st, as it sometimes does), with a mini-freeze just ending in time for today, but I just saw another one is forecast for the Easter weekend in a couple of weeks. At least there’s more light than darkness now, with more chance of warming sun when it’s shining through the cloud.

Happy Guilt

U.K. comedy great Ken Dodd passed away recently, and one of his regular topics and subject of a song was happiness. I was thinking then that I would probably be happier if I focused on entertainment, instead of feeling obliged to write about the negatives of the world, mostly due to having been to university and studying politics and international communications, and wanting to ‘make a difference’; knowing I can only try and slow the planet’s decline down, due to human overpopulation and consumption; which brings me into direct conflict with the general theme of global human happiness… in the short term anyway… as future generations will be happier if they have a cleaner planet with lots of other species!

Stephen Hawking, who of course inspired the greenYgrey parody comedy science correspondent, Stephen Wolfing, also passed away recently. He seemed happy, having fought against the most debilitating illness, showing there are different ways to find happiness, and sometimes adversity provides the opportunity for personal greatness… as in Buddhist enlightenment or Nietzsche’s superness, which can provide happiness whatever the situation.

Comedy Philosophy

Anyway, I have become too greenYgrey, and will leave you with some Ken Dodd happiness to enjoy the special day, in whatever way, wherever you are. In the obituaries I was also reminded of Dodd’s 1960s (my birth decade) Knotty Ash Diddy Men, which could have been an early influence on my greenYgrey fantasy fiction, although I didn’t remember them at the time!:

Wikipedia: The Diddy Men have a song, once released as a single, titled “The Song of the Diddy Men”, sung in a high pitched, chipmunk style voice. It includes the chorus: “We are the Diddy Men, Doddy’s dotty Diddy Men, We are the Diddy Men who come from Knotty Ash”. Another song “Doddy’s Diddy Party” featured the refrain – “tonight’s the night the Diddy Men paint the town, we’ll lose our blues, and let our Diddy hair down”. There were several other songs including Diddycombe Fair – a spoof of the well-known West Country song Widecombe Fair.