Now This is What I'm Talking About!!

I love winter. I really do. Cold weather doesn't bother me (the static, however . . . ). I love getting out in the snow. It's refreshing. Some of my best memories of family vacations involve downhill skiing over various Christmas breaks.

I'm also one of those people who absolutely cannot stand heat and humidity - in other words, your typical Midwest (or Southern, or East Coast) summer; those hot, sticky, muggy summers when my glasses fog up the moment I step outside? Blech. No, thank you! (Dry heat is another matter; low humidity heat is easy to handle!) I'll take cool sweater weather - or cold winter weather any day over a hot, humid day. 

But when we get days and days of overcast, gray, depressing skies, with no hint of sun for who knows how long? Well, it starts wearing on me, to the point I think I need one of those S.A.D. lights.

Sure, I spent quite a bit of my life in the Midwest (Illinois, Indiana, and Iowa), so I know what to expect from its weather. But I've also spent a lot of time in the Southwest where we easily get over 300 days of pure sunshine a year - when it rains, the clouds move in, do their thing, and are gone before you know it. Rarely did we get more than a day or two of overcast skies at any one time.

So now that we've settled in Iowa (for now), I get really excited about sunshine after days of not having it. And today seems to be one of those days when it'll be nothing but sunshine - no "mostly sunny" or "partly sunny" skies, but "sunny" all day.

The sun (and a cup of coffee) really make Monday mornings so much easier to handle!

Here's the view from the back yard (through family room the window), as I tried to capture some "snow glitter" in photos:

Sun, snowy sparkles, and shadows.

Snow, some more sparkles, and shadows.

I tried to capture all the sparkles, but I guess the angle was wrong. Got a few of them, though.

And the view from the front yard (after putting on my boots and heading outside, realizing after I got out there, it was not much more than a disappointing "dusting" of snow in the yard):

No clouds!! Blue sky!! However, I didn't really capture any "snow glitter" in this photo. The snow glitter was actually pretty dazzling in person.

I have to admit, though, that with Spring's "official" arrival coming up in a couple weeks, I'm looking forward to not having to bundle up in so many layers (and spring shouldn't be too overly warm, yet).

More importantly, I'm really looking forward to taking "The Spring Shot, 2012" on the University of Iowa's campus (here's The Winter Shot, 2012). I've been thinking about it for the past week or so. I'm pretty sure I won't take it on the first day of spring, just to ensure a more "springy" and less "wintery" look, but it'll be hard to wait too long.