I think we might be going through some odd solstice switches lately.

Basically, my morning routine starts thus:

Plan to sleep in but either wake up too early to go to the loo/wake up for no apparent reason due to active REM sleep/the royal highness of dog demands I awaken from slumber to escort him on his morning ablutions.

I get up, drink some water, sit around for as long as I can/require to remind my legs how to stand and proceed to change into my dogwalking clothes (which for the most part are the sort of clothes that are still presentable to the outside world but sturdy enough to take dog jumping).

I go downstairs, and get circled by hungry sharks and proceed to feed them chum before they decide to bite my ankles feed the cats. The imperial highness of dog gives me very well-practiced puppy-dog eyes and I proceed to let him out the door... only for foster dog to rush inside and prance around for a bit like a demented monkey-gazelle-dog-thing.

I put on my footwear (most of the time I plan to wear sneakers but I always forget and end up wearing slippers) and bring one dog at a time for their morning toilet break.

Now, most days I get up and out of the house by 8.30-9am. That normally sees the sun full up in the sky and my toes getting blistered because I forget to wear covered shoes and/or put any sunblock on.

That was the norm last week.

This week, I get up at 8.30 in the morn' and it still looks like it's barely 7am. On top of that, my toes don't get blistered, my body does not profusely perspire in buckets and the nights come later.

Did it really switch from one solstice to another so quickly?