I had a teacher from Fiji the year I was in grade six. He couldn't understand how the autumn air could be so cold when the sun was high in a clear blue sky. "I thought it was the sun that gave the heat," he would say shaking his head.
The leaves turned as yellow as ripe pears and floated to the ground. Wind swirled in from the north and dusted the hillsides with snow and the blue sky looked even fresher and brighter. And still the sun glittered on every whitened branch. "There is no heat from the sun," our teacher would murmur clutching his jacket closer.
Of course there are complex mathematical ratios at work. The angle of the sun, the position in the earths yearly orbit, the tilt of the earth; they tell the story of sun and heat. It's a very delicate balance. The earth is placed just so, the sun as well.
I love October sun; all of the golden goodness without the heat.
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I met your grade 6 teacher again on the ferry to Vancouver Island a few years ago. I think he spends the warm half of the year here in BC and the rest of the year in Fiji :)
ReplyDeleteJust like a migrating bird. He was a good teacher. Isn't it amazing to think that he travelled all the way from Fiji and ended up in Birch Island? Now that must be a very interesting story.
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