Snow Days, Polar Vortices and Sun Dogs... (ie. I think I'm in the north country again.)

So, it looks like we might not be driving anywhere for a little while...

The more it snows (Tiddely-Pom)

The more it goes (Tiddely-Pom)

The more it goes (Tiddely-Pom)

On snowing...

... but it doesn't mean we can't go running!

Reward: I got to see one of these this morning.

Nope, I didn't take my camera and so this isn't actually my picture. This picture is from The Telegraph's Photo of the Day, 6 December 2012, taken in Burgin County, Xinjiang Autonomous Region in western China. It is called a Sun Dog or parhelion and is formed when sunlight refracts off of ice crystals in the atmosphere. I've seen many smaller versions of this in clouds that appear to have a tiny stripe of rainbow in them, but I've never seen anything like this before.

This morning it started out with the sun rising red and furious over the snow-covered Indiana prairie. Then, as I ran further down the gravel road, a column of red-orange light shot up into the sky, followed shortly after by a Sun Dog on either side that were clearly headed towards making a complete circle around the sun. Amazing what a little blowing and drifting snow combined with any ordinary sunrise can do to lift your spirits and leave you breathless... or maybe it was just the chilly air. Who knows.

Here's to embracing winter!