that the earliest sunset happens approximately December 8th and latest sunrise approximately January 5th - set around the shortest day of approximately December 21st.

this matches with what I was observing (albeit made much more difficult by variable weather conditions!) that it was still getting darker in the mornings but might be getting just a tiny bit lighter in the afternoon-evenings.

not sure whether BBC2 is being ironic/sarcastic but they've scheduled the classic "Summer Holiday" musical film for this afternoon (up against xmas tat on C4 & C5) as we head deeper into winter.

how fascinating! I wasn’t aware that earliest and latest sunrise and sunset were on different days than the solstice!

known it for a very long time but every year struggles to remember which way round they are!

it's an interesting phenomenon precisely because it runs counter to one's niave intuition.