The Receding Scandinavian Sun.

August is one of those months that I both love and hate. I love the fact that it is usually very sunny and dry, in contrast to July. Almost as a rule, August and September tease us with the last feelings of summer, even though almost as if by a stroke of magic, from pretty much one day to another, the evenings get colder.

And most of all, darker.

This is very palpable from my living room windows, which offers magnificent sunsets from the early spring to late autumn. I have dedicated numerous posts to this natural, almost theatrical event, as the sunset fascinates me incredibly. Living on a hill right above the city, I love to watch the changes in the journey that the evening sun takes over the course of the year. The White Nights officially ended this past Friday, which means the end of my favorite season of the year and the beginning of the sun recession.

The sun moves from the ultimate southwest in January towards the west and I love to watch it re-appear in late February, when it once again becomes visible in my view. In the course of March through May, it offers breathtaking light shows, setting further to the right in my view, until mid June, when it sets almost in the far northwest. I have to lean out of the window to watch it set, as it leaves a trace of blood-red sky that doesn't disappear, but moves slowly to the far northeast, turning into sunrise, creating the magic of the Scandinavian White Nights.
As soon as July reaches its end, the setting sun is venturing on the opposite journey back westwards and then slowly back to the south in August through October. Until it disappears all together comes November, setting behind the hills in the southwest, becoming absent for at least three months in the depths of winter, starting in early December, making the day about 10 hours shorter then in the summer months.

Already now, the sun has moved back and the day has lost two hours since the summer solstice. For the next two months, the beautiful solar shows will once again take place in front of my windows, reinforcing the fact the nature is the most talented performer.