Cold sun/magic light

-       How is it physically possible that the sun is out 20 hours a day and it doesn’t get warm?

It’s my friend Harold from US visiting Umeå this spring asking. Good question Harold. Very good question. We are sort of wondering ourselves. Although most of us have been here all our lives. I can’t say it’s a mystery, but it sure is an annoying fact.

Panic and hopeful expectations.  That’s the first days of June in Umeå this far. We had to wait a long time for the leaves to come out this spring. April and May were really cold and the birch trees had to hold the greenery until last weekend when everything popped in two days with a temporary warm wind that embraced the city and turned it into a transparent cloud of light green. That’s the way it usually happens, we really should be used to this transformation, know all about it. But no. Stunned, amazed, perplex is what we are as winter finally is loosing it’s grip and let’s us out to breathe, move, play, live! Was this what it was like?! Is this how I can feel?! It’s magic. It’s nothing but magic.

So, why the panic? Well, the southern wind was chased away by it’s polar cousin, and gloves were on again and the only reason to why not a wool hat too, is that it’s June, goddamnit! It’s finally June, the first out of three all too short precious summer months, and every cold windy rainy day that passes steals away a percentage of a potential summer bliss that we just need way too bad! Cause we don’t get a new shot at this until next summer!

-       I mean, I’m waking up every morning and it’s sunny and lovely (in comparison to Seattle where it’s usually hazy) and chilly but that’s okay, and then at lunch I am thinking it’s gonna be warm outside (like in Seattle where the sun has burned off the morning fog) but it’s still cold, and then finishing up at work the sun is still there and I’m expecting it to be hot (in Seattle the temperature is rising all day with a climax in the afternoon rush hour) but it’s still 10°C (50°F), and I just don’t get it!

What can I say. We have a cold sun up here.

But.  There is one thing that’s really reliable here on the 63rd latitude. Polar winds, weather patterns, climate change, recessions, Euro crisis, oil price, terrorism, we are safe. We have the light. It’s not like “Isn’t it unusually dark for being this time of year?”  Or “Wasn’t June a lot lighter last year?” Nop. We have the light. Pretty much 20 hours a day now, and that day is continuing stretching three more weeks. I am not going to get started on how we are reacting passing that moment, that’s a different story. But for now, we have the light. Reliable, consistent, stable unaffected. It's magic. Nothing but magic.