Light plays tricks on eyes on Camano Island near winter

Published 1:30 am Sunday, December 24, 2023

I live on the lee side of Camano Island. I drive up over the hill and down some until I get to my place, so that I am in the shadows as the sun comes up in the morning.

I am not up much mornings when the sun peeks over the Cascades, because I am a second-shift worker.

One day recently I was up early. And it is late in the year when the sun comes up most south in the eastern sky. Only a few more more days to solstice on Dec. 21.

When I step out into my driveway I can see a little sliver of water and the east side of Whidbey.

On this particular occasion as I looked down at Whidbey there was a brilliant shaft of light coming from the southeast along Puget Sound. It illuminated the east side of Whidbey to the effect that, for a person like me in the shadows, it created the illusion the sun was coming up in the west.

David Roeser

Camano Island