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Goodbye Summer, Hello Winter

Forget New Year's Eve, the year has two true turning points - the equinoxes. Technically just the dates on which night and day are the same length (equinox is latin for 'equal night'), but meaning so much more... an equinox marks the point at which day gains supremacy over night, or vice versa, and wins the right to rule the next six months.

Three fleeting months ago it was midsummer. The sun rose at 4.44am and set at 9.22pm, a day of 16:38 hours. A month later the day was 15:57 hours long, a loss of only 41 minutes. But to lose another 41 minutes took only 15 days, as summer started to release its grip.

This week we are losing 4 minutes a day, and the momentum is all with night as we race into darkness and cold. This is the time of fastest change, and nature is reacting fast. Trees are hunkering down for winter, shedding leaves and turning inward; the migratory birds are preparing to fly south, in some cases as far as Australia, and those that are staying must fatten up in readiness for the lean months ahead.

And as the days shorten the light thins. By midwinter it will be pale, sharp and cold, making summer sun seem as thick as marmalade. Winter will cleanse our outside world, keeping frail humans inside while it scours the earth with biting wind and splintering frost.

Winter is as beautiful in its harsh sterility as summer is in its swollen fertile excesses. More beautiful even - summer has nothing to compare with the snowflake, or the creep of ice across still water.

So I bid you welcome Mistress Winter, the stage is yours.