Question from Deb: Clocks change this weekendherein the US, which means one less hour to read … does anybody else begrudge that hour like I do? Wish the Powers That Be would just pick a time-frame and stick to it instead of inflicting clock-driven jet lag on an innocent public twice a year?
Here in Sweden, daylight saving time or ‘summer time’ does not start until the last weekend in March; which this year mercifully means not until the very last day of the month. I agree with Deb – I never saw the point myself. My body clock never seems to fully adjust and I always welcome ‘normal’ time back in the late autumn.
A clock in Borås museum.
I’ll add a clock-related question of my own:
When you think of clocks, what books (if any…) come to mind for you?
Here are three that popped up in my head:
The Borrowers by Mary Norton:
Borrowers, in case you don't know, are a little people who live under the floor or behind the walls in big people's houses, preferably close to the kitchen or dining room, because they live on what the human beans leave lying around. When the story begins, there is just one family of Borrowers left in a big old house - 14 year old Arrietty with her parents Pod and Homily; with surname Clock, because the entrance to their home is behind a clock in the hall. The greatest fear of a Borrower is to "be seen" by a human bean. One day, this happens to Arrietty… (from my review 2009)
The Distant Hours by Kate Morton:
It wasn’t actually the layers of time in this story that made me think of it now, but an image of another clock in a hall that popped up in my mind, triggered by thinking about the one in The Borrowers… Funny, isn’t it, how you can have images in your mind of a house just described in a book even though there were no illustrations. I think in both books there was a man who came once a week to wind the clock!
The Time Keeper by Mitch Albom:
A sort of modern fable, connecting the fates of two very different people in our own time with that of the first man ever in human history to start measuring time. It also involves the myths of Father Time, and the Tower of Babel.
(from my review in October 2012)
9 comments:
i like the clock, it would not fit in my low ceilings but i do love it. no books come to mind about clocks. I have been complaining about the coming time change for 3 weeks, ever since i found it on March 10 when i flipped the calendar to write appts on it... and we have a vet appt for baby at 8 am on Monday.. yowsa. it will still be dark... this is the one i despise, hate, and do the most complaining, as though that changes anything. i threaten every year to move to Arizona since they don't participate in time change.
As you can tell from my blog, I love clocks of all kinds. Your pictured clock is absolutely gorgeous.
I have always wanted to visit Sweden; my maternal grandparents were born and raised there.
Thanks for visiting my blog.
I still see no point to it and really hate it!!! BUT is is always so nice to get the extra hour of light in the evening, too bad we can't have it all the time!
We do not have daylight saving here where I live. I have experienced it in total one year, and at various times when on holidays. Personally I experienced no problems, but I know that many farmers hated the entire experience. Cows need milking at their own time and the milk truck's new schedule may not then fit with a changed train schedule. And so forth.
Clocks? I use them all day long, but I suspect that if we counted all the people in the world with no clocks and watches that number would be higher than the number of clock watchers. Certainly clocks help us synchronise with other events. I have worked with people who count time differently from me and that was complicated. They counted one o'clock as one hour after the sun came up. Many indigenous families in my region do not have any clocks so send their children to school when they feel the time is right, which could be any time at all.
Time and its measurement is a very interesting topic. I am pleased you encouraged me to think about it.
Thank heavens the powers that be realised that having Daylight Saving Time here was plain folly. I hated it, and I did not find it necessary for us here in the Caribbean.
My feelings of DST have changed a bit ever since having a kiddo, though I definitely like for it to be light later in the day... Here's my full BTT response!
The Borrowers! How nice to be reminded of these lovely books on here! I read them as a child and loved them so much I re-read them decades later.
Every year around the changing to summer time, a number of articles appear in our newspapers, saying that it has been statistically proven years ago that it does not really do anything for saving energy (and money). And yet they go ahead and do it every year. Russia has, I think, stopped switching between summer and winter time. For once, a sensible decision of its leaders!
I don't recall where on the globe it is you live, Louise. But as for farmers, cows and milking, I remember that same discussion from Sweden when daylight saving time was introduced here. I'm still grumbling after 30+ years... Not sure if the cows are too, since I don't have any farmers among my acquaintances just now!
We do seem to have quite a few favourite children's books in common, Meike! As for the summer time, I was just thinking maybe it makes more sense further south in Europe - interesting that you seem to be having the same discussions. In the very north of Scandinavia the sun does not go to bed at all for a month or so around Midsummer anyway...
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