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rfmcdonaldI figured out yesterday what was particularly unsettling about the warmth of this Christmas season, late Christmas Eve afternoon. It was a matter of the quality of the light outside.
Canada is a higher-latitude country, entirely comparable latitude-wise to many other countries--northern Europe comes to mind. I've certainly been out on winter days just past the solstice before, I have certainly seen the light on those days, I've even taken photographs on those days. I have never before seen that kind of light against a verdant background: Toronto is quite comparable latitude-wise to nice, but Ontario in December never compared to Provence at the same time. At least, not before this year. At worst, it looked and felt like April outside.
The same was true on Christmas Day.
This all has been unsettling. What else can I say? It feels almost as if someone has switched out Canada and the world, perhaps transplanted us to a distant exoplanet with a different environment. Perhaps we're closer to our sun; perhaps we have less of an axial tilt; perhaps the atmosphere is different. My country just feels, and looks, terribly different from the way I know it should look, and I worry.
Canada is a higher-latitude country, entirely comparable latitude-wise to many other countries--northern Europe comes to mind. I've certainly been out on winter days just past the solstice before, I have certainly seen the light on those days, I've even taken photographs on those days. I have never before seen that kind of light against a verdant background: Toronto is quite comparable latitude-wise to nice, but Ontario in December never compared to Provence at the same time. At least, not before this year. At worst, it looked and felt like April outside.
The same was true on Christmas Day.
This all has been unsettling. What else can I say? It feels almost as if someone has switched out Canada and the world, perhaps transplanted us to a distant exoplanet with a different environment. Perhaps we're closer to our sun; perhaps we have less of an axial tilt; perhaps the atmosphere is different. My country just feels, and looks, terribly different from the way I know it should look, and I worry.
