The days are getting shorter! The days are getting shorter!

This winter solstice has been marked in places including Newgrange, that stunning piece of Neolithic engineering halfway to Dublin.

As mentioned last week, the darkest evenings are already past us but the darkest mornings come just after Christmas. This though is the shortest day, with only seven hours of daylight between sunrise at 8.44am and sunset at 3.59pm.

I am sending this at 12.22pm, the mid point. It is the lowest of the 'highest-point-in-the-day' for the sun all year.

Of the many joys at this time of the year, the very low angle of the sun means that when it does appear it lights places where the sun normally does not touch. I was working from my late parents' house in North Down yesterday and it was gloriously bright, with the sun rays stretching through the hall and across to the back of the house, something it only does at this point in the calendar.

It was like having a private Newgrange! I wrote this some years ago about passing the darkest day, and I mention being at Newgrange for the solstice 20 years ago. The sun did not emerge!

Yesterday was glorious, today windy and much less agreeable, yet there have been flashes of December sun.

Here is Alf McCreary on how Christmas helps lift depressing news.

And this is my column about Northern Ireland's shambolic all-things-to-all-men airport policy, while the excellent Dublin Airport soars.

Enjoy your Solstice! And your reading,

Ben