Sundogs

I know people probably think I'm crazy to love winter here so much, but I really do.  I will never fall out of love with the sound fresh fallen snow makes when you walk on it.  Winter in Alaska is the time of year that I always seem to experience the most firsts.  Last year was the first time I had experienced extreme cold, frozen eye lashes and that feeling where you know the inside of your nose is freezing.  Winter is just beginning here this year.  The snow seems to have finally arrived to stay and temperatures have dropped to single and negative digits.  I've officially pulled my heavy Canada Goose winter coat out of hibernation - although, I don't know how long I will be able to wear it for.  Already it's getting difficult to zip around my quickly expanding belly.  I had forgotten how difficult it is to drive wearing my bulky snow boots.  
One of the things that I love about winter here is the diamond dust.  When temperatures drop low enough and the sky is clear enough the moisture in the air freezes; the ice crystals reflect the sun and create a shimmering effect.  At first you think it is snowing, but then you realize that there are no clouds and what you think is snow is too fine and never actually falls to the ground.
A few nights ago I experienced a couple of new firsts. Working in fast track I get off much later than I used to with outpatient clinic.  This one particular night I unplugged the car and fought and fought with the completely frozen 25 foot extension cord.  I gave up trying to unplug the end attached to my car, it wasn't budging.  I spent close to 15 minutes forcing the frozen cord to wrap around my side mirror.  Not an easy task I assure you when your hands are as frozen as the cord is!  Once the cord was finally secure I next set about scraping my windows.  I scraped until my arms were sore but the windows weren't clearing up.  After a few choice words not appropriate for this blog, I realized the reason was because the frost was on the inside of the windows!!
My most recent first new experience was an atmospheric phenomenon called a parhelion or sundog.  There have been many occasions living in Bethel where I have wondered if I was still in the United States, but this experience left me wondering if I was still on planet earth!  Sundogs occur when the temperatures are cold enough that the light reflects off ice crystals in the air (diamond dust).  It gives the illusion of more than 1 sun.  On this particular day the diamond dust was everywhere giving everything a sparkly, shimmery look, and the sundogs gave the appearance of there being not 1, but 3 suns.  I was half expecting a dragon or pegasus to fly over me because surely I was either dreaming or had somehow walked into another world.
The pictures below are exactly how the sun appeared.  They are not Photoshopped,and it is not a trick of a special lens or filter.  The only thing the camera didn't pick up was the shimmering of the diamond dust.