Tonight I was watching an episode of one of my favourite shows and part way through I became incredibly happy. I couldn't quite put my finger on it as to why, and then it suddenly dawned on me. I was feeling good because the scene on the TV was of a bright sunny day in Florida. It was the fact that I was watching this sunny day on TV and it suddenly brought back memories of being in the sun on a warm day, that was making me elated! It struck me how such a simple thing can affect a person so profoundly. Now that we're coming up on the shortest day of the year it's pretty dark most of the time. I stopped and reflected on this- I don't have seasonal affective disorder, nor am I depressed. My diet is rich in vitamin C and D and I get plenty of exercise, both outdoors and in the gym. There are no shortage of social activities and hobbies to fill up time outside of work (not to mention the fairer sex!) It's just that my mind has become normalized to prolonged darkness, just as in the summer you get used to the opposite.
Right now in Yellowknife we get about 5 hours of light per day. Sun comes up around 10 am and goes down by 3 pm. And for the first and last hour it's not real sunlight- more like a strange red twilight that just barely creeps over the horizon. So we really are only getting 3 hours of REAL daylight, and the sun doesn't really hang in mid sky, it sort of rises in the east, moves over a little bit and then sets, well still mostly in the east! And if it's overcast, good night gracie!
Both summer and winter have their unique advantages. Summer is perpetual daylight- you can be mowing your lawn, or sailing out on the lake at 11 pm and be none the wiser. Winter time is virtual darkness. but ho boy do those northern lights make up for it!
Summer is running, fishing and boating. Winter is snowshoeing, snowmobiling and ice-fishing. Nice thing about the winter is there's no bugs. You can actually go a lot more places in the winter than you can in the summer, provided you have the right gear to keep you warm and get you around.
I was going to post some pics of the wonderful little city that I live in, but a friend of mine in town is a photographer and has his own website that puts any of my pictures to absolute shame!
To see where I live, go here-
http://www.arctic-photo.com/images/northwest_territories/index.html
He also has extensive pictures of the Yukon and Nunavut (arctic, think the north pole!)