Snowbows and Diamond Dust

 

Today around 1 pm the sun was trying to break through a hazy fog consisting of teeny tiny snowflakes - so small one could not really see them, just feel them... And while I was out in it (for about 25 minutes) they also landed as a thin powdery layer on top of the black cap I was wearing. (As I was wearing a white coat, I did not notice this until I got back home and saw myself in the mirror in the lift on the way up to my flat!).

 

I went for a short walk to the nearest small convenience shop to buy some bananas and a couple of pears, to cover my need of fresh fruit until my next home delivery from the supermarket, booked for Friday.

 

 

 

I didn't actually notice those rainbow-like phenomena in the sky until I got this photo (above) up on my computer screen at home. But I think they too must be to do with that strange icy atmosphere.  (*)

 

 

Yesterday, I saw a hare disappearing into some bushes near a building. I know there are at least one or two hares that I think of as "living" in the old cemetery, but that I also sometimes see (from my windows, at night) grazing on the lawns on the estate where I live. Today, I noticed more evidence (footprints in the snow) of it/them having been around here. No doubt it's difficult for them to find food just now, with the ground all covered in snow - both here and "there"... 

 

 * * *

 

* I googled "rainbow in snow" and got this AI summary:

 

A "rainbow in snow," or snowbow, is a rare, faint arc of color (or white) caused by sunlight refracting through ice crystals in falling or blowing snow, rather than water droplets like a normal rainbow. Snowbows are often muted and harder to see because snowflakes are complex shapes, making them less effective at creating distinct colors, and they usually appear at sunrise or sunset when conditions are right. 

 

How it forms:

• Light & Ice Crystals: Sunlight hits ice crystals in the air (like snowflakes or diamond dust). **
• Refraction: The light bends (refracts) and splits into colors as it passes through the crystals, similar to a regular rainbow.
• Faint Colors: Because snowflakes are imperfect and complex, the colors often blend, resulting in a paler, sometimes white, arc known as a white rainbow or fogbow. 

I like the word "diamond dust", because that's exactly what it felt like when I first got out for my walk today. So I had to look that up as well, and here is what Wikipedia says:

 

Diamond dust is a ground-level cloud composed of tiny ice crystals. This meteorological phenomenon is also referred to simply as ice crystals and is reported in the METAR code as IC. Diamond dust generally forms under otherwise clear or nearly clear skies, so it is sometimes referred to as clear-sky precipitation. Diamond dust is most commonly observed in Antarctica and the Arctic, but can occur anywhere with a temperature well below freezing. In the polar regions of Earth, diamond dust may persist for several days without interruption.  

 

Walking in Snow

 

The snow warnings issued yesterday for around here today were cancelled towards noon. Whoever is in charge of where to drop the snow evidently decided to dump most of today's snow ration somewhere else. And as even just walking the few meters to the bins by the corner of the building just now demands donning full winter gear anyway, I decided to prolong that walk a little to snap a few photos. 

Our street had probably been ploughed yesterday, with only a thin extra layer of snow added since then - and no grit added so far. And when the weather is not too difficult, there's always a special feeling about getting out in freshly fallen dry snow - still pristine and white, rather than dirty or slushy or icy...

The photo at the top shows the bridge over the railway, leading to the old cemetery. That bridge is often a tricky and slippery spot in winter, but it looked ok just now, so I decided to cross it and have a look on the other side.

Looking down on the railway tracks below.

 

The pedestrian crossing over to the cemetery looked more treacherous, though. So I decided not to go over there, but just snap a couple of photos in that direction from where I was...

... and then turn back to walk a bit more on the paths in among the apartment buildings.

 

I think I get it now, why they had summer holiday maintenance teams paint the large stones lining the walk paths in bright colours. A bit easier now for snow plough drivers to see them in winter!  

The snow gathered on top of benches gives an idea of how much has fallen so far...

 

I was out for about half an hour, but walking very slowly (still having to "think" about my left knee with every step in this kind of weather), and using two poles. Each photo means full stop, removing my right glove, taking out my phone from my small shoulder bag, somehow manouvering both phone and poles while taking the photo, then putting the phone back in the bag, putting my right glove back on, and getting the right grip of both poles again to continue walking... It was quite nice winter weather to be out in today, though - no wind, with good winter boots on not really slippery, and I was dressed warm enough. :)

 

17th Blogoversary, an Award, and the Difficulty of Analogue Communication

 

Image created with help from Bing AI

An old friend from the Analogue World called me today, chatting away in some detail about her Christmas and New Year. For my own part, I found myself with very little to contribute to the conversation - mainly because I felt that very little of what I had been up to myself was likely to make any sense to her.

I suppose she may have "kind of" grasped the concept of me having had a video call with my brother on Christmas Eve. But I simply couldn't think of any way to even try to explain to her, for example, that while on New Year's Eve I went to bed at 9 pm, at the same time I was also attending the Laughing Horse Awards Ceremony on a small island among the U.S. Virgin Islands, hosted by blogger Yorkshire Pudding. (If you weren't there yourself, you can read more about it in his first two posts for 2026 on his blog by the same name.) 

Actually I have to confess that even my own memories of that event are rather blurry, in spite of the fact that I was even honoured with an award myself. (But I suppose that's probably true for some Nobel Prize winners as well!)

The official report from the event also claims that I performed some ABBA songs. I can't say I recall that either, but one that seems likely to myself would be this one:

 - - -

Now I'm curious to know if other bloggers recognise the difficulty (or sheer impossibility) of explaining, to people who don't even use the internet at all, your own daily interaction with people around the world whom you never met in the so-called real life...

 

- - - 

 

My own first blog (originally called The Island of the Voices) was started on 5th January, 2009. And I'm finding it pretty amazing, that 17 years later, I'm still in blog-contact with some other bloggers that I got to know during the very first year - while also still continuing to meet new interesting people along the way!

 

My first blog post ever, 5 January 2009

 Happy New Blogging Year to us all!

  

 

Plodding On

 

It's still snowing here "on and off", and seems likely to continue that way for a while. My internet also seems slow today. Whether that's to do with the weather or not, I don't know. But as it seems to take a long time to load pages and publish comments just now,  I'll probably won't be doing all that much of that today.

The photo above was zoomed in from one of my windows, yesterday. I'll see if I can manage to link it to Weekend Street/Reflections. 

Still Snowed In

Black-and-white view from the window down in the basement laundry room today. With all the red days falling on weekdays lately, I ended up doing weekday work on the weekend...

(From this short post you should be able to conclude that while it's still snowing, electricity and water and the internet are still functioning here, and I'm "ok"...)

 

Snowy Start to 2026

 

Skywatching on New Year's Eve ~ 11:45 am

Alas (?) I have no fireworks photos from the evening. I was actually so tired that I went to bed around 9 pm! My eyes were tired, too - so I preferred to just lie in bed listening to an audio book rather than watch TV. And as the last few hours just before midnight actually tend to be rather quiet (until the general midnight hallabaloo breaks out all over town), I even managed to fall asleep before midnight. I know that, because I know I woke up about ten minutes into the new year! ;) Staggered out of bed to have a look of course, but didn't really see much from my windows just then. So I soon gave up trying to catch anything on camera, and went back to bed... And at some unknown point in time managed to go back to sleep.

Many hours later into New Year's Day - after daybreak - I woke up to find the ground covered with perhaps 5 cm of snow. No plough came round all day, but most of it gradually thawed away on its own. Myself, I did not set foot outdoors, but spent the little energy I had on making a quiche (cheese, ham and leek) for lunch (and supper as well). - "Traditionally" I used to make it for my New Year's Eve parties with a small group of friends, for around 20 years. The pandemic broke our habit of seeing the new year in together; and for various "age and health" related reasons among us, it has not been resumed since. (I miss it in a nostalgic kind of way, but this year definitely not from practical/health points of view.)

On the whole, I wasn't awake much more on New Year's Day than I was on the Eve before (and even less "active", since I did not go out at all); and I again went to bed early. But I think I only heard one single explosion all day. (Someone must have found a leftover...) 

I knew there were weather warnings issued for last night and today - snow and wind - the worst of them for further up north in Sweden, but also to a lesser degree in my area here in the south-west. Still, I was surprised this morning to wake up to as much as probably around 10 cm snow on the ground, and still snowing... And it seems likely to continue all weekend!

Photos taken from my windows between c. 10-11 am today.

Today's motto: "Better snowed in than frozen out!"

Linking to Skywatch Friday 

 

Adding a couple of photos copied from our local newspaper's app: