The Power of Sunshine

I am writing this while sitting in our newly built garden room. It’s a home office, but we’ve put a sofa in it as well as a desk as I like to write (and read) while curled up on a sofa. There are double patio doors that open wide and clip back, so that you feel as though you are outside yet you’re in the shade.

Garden room

In front of the garden room we’ve added a solar powered fountain-cum-birdbath. When the sun is high enough and not behind cloud, water spurts out the top and cascades from one level to the other. As soon as the sun goes behind a cloud it switches off. There’s a lovely relaxing sound of running water when it’s in action.

Today there’s a bit of cloud around so the fountain is switching itself on and off frequently. It’s got me musing on the power and magic of sunshine.

I know a lot of people who are a bit like our fountain – they need sunshine to function at their best. Grey skies depress them and all they want to do is take to their beds and stay indoors. Seasonal Affective Disorder is common – people suffering in the winter months due to lack of vitamin D, which is made in the body after exposure to sunshine.

After a long winter we all feel better in the spring, when we get the first few warm sunny days, and are able to get out and enjoy fresh air. Especially this year, when in the UK we had a long Covid lockdown that started in January and has only gradually been lifted in stages. Sunshine lifts spirits, brings smiles to faces, gives a healthy glow to the skin (when taken in moderation!) adds highlights to the hair, and makes everyone say, “What a lovely day!” to everyone they meet.

Love the sunshine

Sunshine makes plants grow, flowers bloom, birds sing. Cats will seek out those spring rays of sunshine and position themselves so as to soak up as much warmth as they can. (I’ve always suspected cats might be related to lizards and other cold-blooded creatures – they do seem to want to bask in the sun a lot!)

Of course, sunshine’s power can be harnessed in a much larger way, providing energy for something more than our cats, spirits and water fountains. Many years ago, before it was fashionable, my dad toyed with the idea of putting a solar panel on the roof of my parents’ house. He’d worked a lifetime in the electricity industry and was intrigued by the idea that he could generate his own. This was long ago in the 1970s when solar panels were not at all common place. Dad looked into it in some detail, but in the end gave up on the idea because the house wasn’t angled the right way. You need a south-facing pitched roof for best results. Now in some areas every second house seems to have them – it’s become a real industry. And why not – sunshine is free, and using it for electricity is better for the planet than many of the alternatives.

Our motorhome has a solar panel on the roof that tops up the leisure battery, so that you can park up somewhere without being on electrical hook-up (if the weather’s good) without fear of the battery running down. And on our travels in Spain we’ve passed solar farms – row upon row of huge solar panels on hillsides angled towards the sun. Looking it up now, I see that Spain leads the world in generating electricity by harnessing the sun’s energy.

A solar farm

But it’s the little effects of sunshine I like best. The way it makes streams sparkle, the dappling of a woodland floor, the glow of a rose petal caught in a ray of sunlight. The glistening of quartz crystals on a sandy beach, the beauty of a setting sun lighting wispy clouds from underneath, the sight of fluffy white clouds against an azure sky. And the gorgeous sound of our tinkling fountain, making me feel as though all will be well with the world, as long as the sun keeps on shining.

Fountain