Winter light in the Pacific Northwest

Low snow in Cascade Foothills and cloud cover on Mt. Rainier

Christmas Morning gloom ... December 25, 2012

A momentary flash of morning light illuminates Tacoma and the St.Regis mill.

Late, low light on New Years Eve

New Years Morning  ... bright sunshine & clear skies at last.

2013 is upon us! Today when I was tutoring the first grader I work with each week I wrote the numbers for the first time.

It is a time of short, often dark, days ( even though officially there is a daily lengthening of a few minutes) and long, dark, winter nights in our part of the world.  The sun spends more time in the southern hemisphere and is very low in the southern part of the sky here each day.  When it does shine it is dazzling! On the other hand when the sun doesn't shine it is often difficult to differentiate between the sky and the water: they are both grey! There is a short time annually when the low sun rising behind Mt. Rainier projects the reflection of the mountain onto the water.  I managed to capture a neighbors tree highlighted, the roof line of a single building and outline of evergreen trees projected onto the water of Commencement Bay, from the ridge opposite our home looking in a southerly direction. In that fleeting moment when the sun shone late in the afternoon on New Year's Eve - it was brilliant !  Twenty seconds later the darkness returned! Today it was thick fog and frost.  Wonder what tomorrow will bring?