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Remember the sun? It was out for a bit in mid-January. Then, a weekend turning into a week, and then more, of morning fogs, bringing cold, damp and gloom, the days of fog extending into weeks, bringing more morning cold, damp and gloom. It becomes hard to believe, as Thoreau wrote, “ But alert and healthy natures remember that the sun rose clear.”

But it does. Even if February’s morning starts continue the overcast and damp handed off by January, know that we have made it. When the sun is out, even as a white ball on the other side of cloud cover, do you see in it the brighter light, the softer shadows, the later sunsets, the higher angle of the sun and its more northerly creeping out of the southern sky? Winter is not over but the darkest, shortest days of the year are.

Yes for the glorious last month of winter. Every year, come November, my step slows and my frown lengthens with the obviously advancing earlier sunsets and the longer nights. The next eight weeks – over now – are a long slow crawl, the winter, if not of my despair, certainly of darkness, coldness and accompanying gloom. No wonder throughout December we welcome lights on trees, indoors and out, on fences and rooflines and look to Santa so.

But alert and healthy natures remember that the sun rose clear. We can see for ourselves, if not today, some days, and more of them, soon, perhaps by this week's end.