Solstice- Fairbanks

Solstice, the shortest day approaches, which means soon the sun starts returning rather than going away. ( this was taken at 1:15 pm)

today the 18th its clear mostly , I don't now if I would call it sunny but warmer than yesterday. yes these are some of the roads that we drive on, Most of town is like this or worse. that's ice solid sheet ice.

For 3 days before thanksgiving we had freezing rain, then the temp dropped and it all froze.

then it dropped a whole bunch and we had -30 and -40 this week.

so today it was a nice day and its warm, believe it or not.

ice Carving 2009

 the Caribou , and the wolves below were the winners
 the wolves were just pounding to attack, the detail in the carving was  cool, like you could feel yourself watching the hunt....
  Greek mythology, i think is great( surprise)  and Pegasus  is an amazing creature. even in ice.
 Now i am not really an abstract person, i am much more of a  realistic person, but  this is  different and caught my  eye
 and the tortoise  has a baby on her backl

he  ice carving this year was really good. but   i want you to look closely at photo at the bottom, of the thermometer . to see the temp this morning( Sunday) 10 am and it was cold, and their was a wind as well

 then just for your interest  they show you the power of the sun and an ice lens, this piece of wood smelt like it was burning, it stunk. ( i know but it stunk) like horrible burn smell.
 i was cold even with long johns on. its march its supposed to be warm.
 yes I have some patches of frost bite on my checks to prove it was well.

Yikes.

It was -3 this morning. and I am not talking Celsius, I mean Fahrenheit.( -20 C ) it was too dam early for this. I need some heet in the car, plastic in front of the radiator, hell and someone to keep me warm. I put on a warmer coat this morning.
The good side was it warmed up to 19. I sat in the sun for lunch, ....inside that is...