We were driving back from Victor Bay last night, and it suddenly occurred to me that night has returned to us.
Leah's parents had gone to spend the weekend in Victor Bay, and in the half light we could see the lights of the tent as we drove down. We spent only a little while there, Leah and the kids in the small tent, while I stood talking outside, in a cold wind that chilled my bones. As I searched far off Nuvua in the half light with the binoculars for the dim light of another camp, I thought to myself that it felt like winter, and that we'd be seeing snow before too long. (Sure enough I awoke this morning to see snow about three quarters of the way down King George).
But it was the drive back, at around 11 pm, that I realized that we were no longer in any sort of half light, it was dark. This, of course, didn't happen overnight. The nights have been getting steadily deeper, since the sun began setting a month ago. House lights go on in the evenings now, I have to make sure that the night lights at the top of the stairs are on during the night for the clients. But last night was the first night that I realized that is now truly dark at night. Dark season, and the setting of the sun are two months away. Winter is on our door step.