I don't like the dark days of winter. Rising in darkness always seems like a chore but to be abroad before dawn has its compensations. The world is stirring and stealing a march on it makes me feel virtuous.
Yesterday's walk for the newspapers was lit by a moon just past the full. The moon before Yule, to give it its title. The next full moon will be The Moon after Yule, then the Wolf Moon, then the Lenten Moon and so on.
Up in the western sky, at the anti-solar point, opposite where the sunrise would be, was a pinkish glow.
I wondered if this was the so called Belt of Venus, a rosy pinkish arch visible after sunset or before sunrise, caused by back scattering of refracted sunlight from fine dust particles high in the atmosphere. Sometimes there is a dark band below it caused by the Earth's own shadow but this morning the horizon was obscured by cloud
Hop into the car and up on to the moors to check against the western sky and ..yes.. I think it was...
the pink band across the sky opposite the not-yet-arrived sunrise.... the moon setting over the Belt of Venus.
Dark days have their light side.
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