A comforting app

I am not given to writing enthusiastic reviews of software (other than Scrivener, available here), but in these exasperating times we can all use as much comforting as we can, and so here’s a small one has that cheered my days.

Sundial is an iOS app (sorry, other platform users) that does a lot of stuff, and as you can see from the image to the left and at the link, you can make it do even more.

It will tell you sunrise, sunset, dawn, dusk, moonrise, etc. It will mark the equinocti and the solstices. You can jump forward and backward in time — you know, when you’re at the manor house solving a 30-year-old murder and simply must know what time the sun set and if there were a full moon the night of the crime.

You can see all of the above for any location, and most of all — the app can make sounds to let you know when any of these occur.

Which brings me to my daily comfort: I have set an alarm for sunset, a quiet little owl hoot. Every day, I get a sweet little “hoot hoot” out of nowhere, and I look out the window to check in with nature.

More: since the solstice, of course, the little hoot has gotten a little later and a little later every day. The light is returning to the northern hemisphere, and believe me, that is a comfort all in itself.

After the summer solstice, again, the little hoot will remind me that the days grow shorter and I’d best be mindful of that.

You could use this app to drive yourself crazy with reminders and alerts, but trust me, my way is better. As I said at the top of the piece, we all need as many comfort rituals as we can get.

(It has also occurred to me that I now can find the times for 3 Old Men’s labyrinth ritual at the burn without having to go to the clunky website I have been using for six years.)