Ben Lowry: The dark days of November do not seem so bad this year, perhaps due to such a bright spring in lockdown

Regular readers of this column might have noticed that I am a Jeremiah about the short winter days in Northern Ireland.
By Ben Lowry
Published 28th Nov 2020, 11:45 BST
Updated 28th Nov 2020, 12:13 BST
Grey late autumnal weather in Bushy Park, London on Friday as overnight temperatures dropped below freezing in much of the UK including Northern Ireland. The days are not only short at this time of year, they are getting shorter by the day, and months of darkness lie ahead. Photo: John Walton/PA WireGrey late autumnal weather in Bushy Park, London on Friday as overnight temperatures dropped below freezing in much of the UK including Northern Ireland. The days are not only short at this time of year, they are getting shorter by the day, and months of darkness lie ahead. Photo: John Walton/PA Wire
Grey late autumnal weather in Bushy Park, London on Friday as overnight temperatures dropped below freezing in much of the UK including Northern Ireland. The days are not only short at this time of year, they are getting shorter by the day, and months of darkness lie ahead. Photo: John Walton/PA Wire

I have long found November a particularly bleak month. Not only are the days hideously short, they are get shorter by the day.

I recall as a boy playing sport at this time in the calendar, under grey skies, and associate it with the cawing of crows overhead.

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It was like a harbinger of coming doom that the birds above could see.

In November, months of darkness lie ahead, and there is none of the festive joy of December to alleviate the gloom.

If you rise late, which as a big sleeper I sometimes do, the day is all the shorter and more disappointing.

But this year November has bothered me less than before. I think it is because I had the good fortune of being able to work from home in lockdown, in a room bathed in natural light.

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Normally I would spend much of Spring in an office during the day, at some distance from a window. This year it was almost unending daylight. It is as if I got then enough rays to propel me through the rest of the year.

I wonder if any readers have experienced a similar sense?

• Ben Lowry (@BenLowry2) is News Letter deputy editor

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Related topics:Ben LowryNorthern IrelandSpring