Longer days, daffodils are out, clocks go forward soon

This week's Independent News & Media Irish regional newspapers' column.

Michael Commane

Donald Trump and Danny Healy-Rae don’t believe in climate change. I beg to disagree with them. I’d like to ask both of them have they been cycling a bicycle recently. 

I’m cycling a long time and I have never seen such rainfall as I have seen in the last six months. Right through the autumn and early winter there was seldom a day when I did not have to use my rain gear. Then again I doubt the two Ds depend on a bicycle to get from A to B.

And the ever-growing power of the wind is noticeable. In the last week, while cycling, I was close to being blown out in front of a passing car.

But the changes that are happening our climate are not having any effect on the ‘rising and setting sun’.

My mother died on February 12, 1988. I can still hear and see her talk with excitement at this time of year about the stretch in the day.

She was ecstatic the first day Dad arrived home from work in the daylight. These days it is bright in Dublin at 6pm. Every day darkness is being pushed back, and since soon after New Year it’s been particularly evident in the evening time. 

But now the mornings are beginning to succumb to daylight. These days leaving home at 7am I get a sense of daylight. Maybe my imagination is running away with me. But wasn’t it Robert Louis Stevenson who said: ‘To travel hopefully is better than to arrive…’. 

And it makes sense. Did you ever notice in the middle of summer how we take the brightness for granted?

Did you know that there is approximately 15 minutes of a difference between sunrise in Dublin and West Kerry? Kerry gets an extra 10 to 15 minutes extra daylight in the evening.

I’m not saying that winter is over but all around us right now there are glimpses of what is to come. The daffodils and bluebells are thriving and the new-born lambs are gambolling in fields across the country.

Ash Wednesday is this week, the beginning of Lent. Every day of Lent will be longer.

So often we take the familiar for granted. It is a good idea to take some time out and realise the wonder and beauty that is right in front of our eyes. That’s exactly what these longer days are about.

I’m often surprised how there is not more written on the scourge of getting out of bed on dark winter mornings. While these days it’s still no walk in the park getting up any time before 6.30am but we have the certainty that it’s going to get easier.

In just over four weeks we’ll be putting the clocks forward. It seems with Brexit we’ll be holding on to the practice of changing the clocks in March and October. 

In winter it will be GMT and in summer GMT plus one. Have you noticed there is a move away from GMT, Greenwich Mean Time, to UCT, Universal Coordinated Time? A good table quiz question – ‘How many time zones are there? There are more than 24. And just in case you forget what to do with your clock. Remember it’s ‘spring forward’ and ‘fall back’. 

The again, most time-pieces these days, change automatically.

My mother’s joy at the days getting longer is one of my abiding memories of her. Simple, wonderful too.

This is a great time of year. Enjoy the now. It’s all we have.